Bandits on the Sea are like Pirates on Land
by VisitorNo.18
Summary: Ever wondered what would happen if one of the most scientifically inclined, heavily desired, overpowered devil fruits (practically on the same level as the Ope Ope no Mi) was eaten by a brainless woman? What if that brainless woman was none other than Curly Dadan? -Read to quell your curiosity, if bandits gets on a boat, doesn't that make them pirates?
1. Dawn is Down

**Bandits on the Sea are like Pirates on Land**

**I have a reason to believe that Garp is a smart piece of shit and he knew what he was doing when he left Ace and Luffy with Dadan. So what were Garp's security measures? What should happen should the World Government realize Ace and Luffy's existence? What of the people in Fushia and Mt. Columbo? **

**Every thing can be explained in one operation:**

**DAWN is DOWN**

The flames rise higher and higher in the sky. The smell of burning wood mixed with the smell of burnt bodies, wafting through the sea air heading their direction as they made their escape through the back of the island, behind the Goa castle.

Half of Dawn island was annihilated. A Buster Call was called onto Fushia and Mt. Columbo. Goa was spared, but many outside the second wall were killed in unjustified incidents. Contained. In order not to alarm the nobles. -Dadan expected this much, after all, she raised Roger's kid.

"Da-dan…" Luffy's voice, hoarse from crying as he'd barely escaped from the tragedy with Makino. Makino, she was crying in Luffy's arms as she turns her back from the island she grew up in, planned to spend the rest of her days in. Now gone, along with the life she'd built for herself. Dadan knew she also held guilt, much like her who raised Roger's kid, she raised the other brat. She practically raised Dragon's child. And this is the price they pay. The lives of all the people on Mt. Columbo and Fuchsia are on theirs. Deep down, they knew they were the cause of this Buster Call.

The sight of the two made Dadan wanted to cry too. She'd lost her bandits to the gunshots and the fire. Saw some of them die right before her eyes trying to protect her and the others, to let them escape. Yet she held strong. Her eyes glistened, as the blazing fire and the red sun reflected in her stormy hazel eyes. Dawn was Down- Garp's code, not hers. There was no place for them now.

She takes the hood they used to escape the island, the one on Luffy was already exposing his hair. As gently as she could, she took the hood and covered his head. She'd never show affection to them, she swore it to Garp, and to herself, that she'd never get attached. Yet this was a boy she watched grow up. A rowdy boy she took care of when he was injured, when he was sick. A boy she tolerated, who's whimsical whims she secretly and covertly supported. Dadan would not give this boy up, what's left of her family is in this small fishing boat. She knew Makino too, regrets nothing.

Makino, Luffy, Dogra and Magra. Only five of them in a sea of uncertainty.

The night falls on the land and sea. The winds have taken them far far away until Dawn was but a speck of light on the dark of the sea and night sky.

Dadan breathes. Her family had cried themselves to sleep, and the world was silent. She finally relaxed as she watched over them. She'd finally cried, the tears she worked so hard to hold in. What would they do now? She wondered to herself.

Where shall they go now?

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**Shoot, I started a new fic before I could finish the others. XD Holler if you want this or if I'm scrapping the idea. Well, Enjoy! While it's up. XD **

**BTW, who else are brainless women in OP? I've come to believe Oda had written more stupid and gag male characters than women, but no woman was written to look dumber (in the whole series) than Dadan, next to Jora, but Jora is smart just looking for someone to understand her art, but Dadan is loved and she cares about her family, but she really isn't the smartest in OP. Literally has NO IDEA ABOUT THE WORLD OUTSIDE the East Blue. She even wondered who were the Tenryubito. She is clearly uneducated other than in the arts of banditry and basic reading and writing and house chores. I've come to recently ship Whitebeard with multiple characters his age and realized, if there was one person I'd like Whitebeard to meet, I'd like him to meet Dadan. The very woman who's dumb and clueless to a tee about the world, who wouldn't know about his title unless someone tells it to her face that she's facing the strongest man in the world, and would be too defensive and tempermental to even consider respecting the man and fearing him like Garp. And Whitebeard is no Garp.**

**So with thaaat... let's get on with the show!**


	2. News Spreads Fast

**Chapter 1**

Ace woke before the light of Dawn. Something felt- not quite right.

The uneasy feeling had him twisting and turning in his bed last night, as a result, he hadn't had a wink of sleep at all. So he goes up to the mess hall, an unusual time he knew Thatch would call early.

He enters to the sound of pots and boiling water for coffee; and the sounds of chopping and smell of cooking and sizzling garlic. Ace feels his mouth watering already.

"Mornin' Ace!" Thatch greets. "Why up so early?"

"I didn't sleep. I couldn't sleep." Ace admits shyly, a hand already rubbing at his neck. "Do you mind if I help in the kitchen? I just need to get my mind off things."

"No, just, it's fine. Here, you can start by making the eggs. Scrambled, all 50 of them." He leads him to a work space where the eggs and bowl were set up. Ace washed his hands before he went on straight to work. Ace had seen Thatch do this like a pro. Cracking four eggs at once in both hands before quickly disposing and picking up the next four. He'd been working his way to that level of skill, but for now, two eggs at a time was all he could manage.

The morning went on smoothly until other brothers filled in for breakfast and Ace finally sat down to take his with them. That's when Samuel, from the 16th division, came in and started distributing papers. Samuel was a man from West Blue, hence he had a certain habit of yelling the headlines out for everyone to hear. Everyone found this beneficial, especially since they had a limited number of News Papers for such a large crew.

The moment Samuel mentioned a destroyed island in East Blue, Ace had immediately snatched the paper form the closest pirate- Vista.

Ace shook at he read the article. A destroyed village of windmills, no survivors. Pirate attack. Burnt mountains… Ace felt like he needed to be there.

"Ace? Ace, are you alright?" Thatch had made his way out of the kitchen the moment he'd seen the commotion in the table and Ace snatching a news paper 3 feet away from him. Then when he started reading, tears started coming out of his eyes. Something was definitely wrong.

"Dawn is Down." He'd whispered to himself, but Thatch could hear him say it. "They know." Suddenly, the situation sounded more serious and more surreal at the same time. Immediately, Ace storms out of the mess hall and runs for the captain's quarters, not before getting stopped by almost every nurse he'd come across. Yet the nurses weren't enough to stop Ace from his hysteria.

"Pops!" Ace calls his captain, tears in his eyes he'd just realized were streaming down his face. Whitebeard rouses from his sleep, concerned that he woke to Ace's silent sobs and shaking shoulders. What had happened, he wondered.

"They know my secret… They burnt my home town. No- no one survived." Ace trembles. Suddenly his legs felt weak, and he felt his knees touch the wooden ground before everything turned black.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Half a month passed by and Dadan was no longer a stranger to the sea.

Mogra was a sailor once, before he'd chosen to stay on land.

Dogra flat out hated the sea, squealed and complained at every jiggly, slimy filthy thing they fished out of it and called food. Yet they lived, and wasn't that a surprise for the bandits.

It was much later, 12 days since Down that they received their bounties. Just as Garp explained how it would happen. Exactly how Garp had predicted it. The village first, -fire, guards, and a certain hidden spot where they've stored a boat and a safe passage on the sea through the back of Goa, hidden by its castle. They were prepared for this, but they weren't prepared enough.

She shuffled through their bounties, laughed at their hideous epithets, complained, got drunk and started pilfering supplies while Luffy ate his fill. It did not help that they had unconsciously beaten up marine sailors off duty, thus increasing the cost of their bounties.

She still laughs at their bounties, but with a more melancholic and deranged though in mind.

**Bandit Hag Curly Dadan** B 2,000,000 Dead or Alive

**Morgra the Fowl **B 1,000,000 Dead or Alive

**Bandit Hunter Dogra** B 1,000,000 Dead or Alive

**Monkey D. Luffy **B 600,000 Dead or Alive

**Maiden Makino** B 500,000 Dead or Alive

She seriously wanted to laugh. If she'd listed off her crimes, 2,000,000 wouldn't be enough to pin to her name. She'd stolen BILLIONS from Nobles and the World Government when she was younger.

Destroyed a country, a city and ransacked multiple towns too. She'd defeated numerous bandit groups and had kept all the other bandits in-line in East Blue for the past 24 years, and finally, raised Gold Roger's son- a priceless endeavor.

She should be worth 500 Billion if you asked her. - Then again, maybe Garp held up his part of the bargain, burnt her records and nulled all her crimes. Practically deleted her from the face of the world- until now...

"Dadan, we're close to Louge Town." Mogra steers the boat. "Are you positively sure we need to go to Grand Line Boss?"

Dadan looks to the sea and the sky, islands in an archipelago dotting the sea. Yeah, well… She doesn't want to go, truly she doesn't. She wants a house, a bandit house. Up in the mountains where they wouldn't be found. She wants a home, just as much as Dogra wants a clean floor and a door mat to welcome guests in with a cup of tea and a sword to the throat. A stable bed and cupboards that don't need locks. A forest and garden outside where they can farm their own food. The simple life, as Dogra called it. Oh, how Dadan had missed that life.

But they can't.

Garp had made it clear. Association to her bandit associations would lead to their deaths. Association with the weak and non-competent will lead to their deaths. It is justifiable to kill them on sight and those around them should that happen. When on land, load quickly and get out. There is no place safe for them once Down happens…. So she runs.

She stole a boat, flew a merchant's flag and hides. Dresses up in foreign clothes and does their business. Then they load up supplies and they leave, barely lasting a day on the island. She was careful, and they survived.

"Yeah. Grand Line is the only place we can go to. Garp should be there." She huffs. Garp was their last umbrella of protection, just as he'd put up the Dawn is Down protocol. The next phase of the plan is to find him, and where better to find the old fart than in Grand Line?

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Garp woke to Sengoku staring disapprovingly above him. The Fleet Admiral's arms were crossed on his chest, gaze dark and Garp knew this wasn't the usual complaint he can solve with donuts and rice crackers.

"Dawn is Down." Sengoku's words and the Garp turned white as a sheet. So, they found out.

"I can see that it's past morning," Garp responds, as part of the protocol he'd set up. Willing his voice not to crack, tensing his muscles not to shake, not to tremble.

The news papers weren't even out yet, and already Sengoku knew…. Cipher Pol must have been tip-toeing themselves around Garp but didn't seem to consider Sengoku telling.

"Your work is lacking! Garp, you are being incredibly lazy and just the sight of you doing nothing here is making me sick." Sengoku complains, loud and clear in the office with only the both of them inside. 'There are ears in the walls', he's covertly trying to say as he nags Garp's working habits. In turn, Garp acts- tries to act nonchalant, relaxed, like it was no big deal…

'What am I supposed to do now?' It was a big deal. He was angry, worried, scared, heart broken, and all the other feelings a guy like him would normally not feel. Family is different.

"I want you out of HQ!" Sengoku ends his tirade. "Go do something useful, like inspect the Marine Bases or something. Just don't sit around like a slob in your office all day!" He practically pushes the guy out. Garp whines, pretends he doesn't want to get out and work. Pretends he'd rather stay in the base and train new recruits. Yet Sengoku practically throws him out the window of the 5th story and when that happens, he's serious. 'Go find your family you lazy ass prick.'

Now that's over, he makes his way to his ship to do some "work", and sets sail for East Blue, unknowns to him of one small team of Whitebeard pirates sailing down from New World across the Calm Belt.

* * *

Whitebeard was concerned. Ace's secret was indeed a big one, now that he re-assesses the situation. Honestly, his secret was not much of a big deal in Edward Newgate's eyes. It was something he shrugs-off often. His children, most of them were born criminal's kids. Store wenches' kids, some were orphans, pirate's kids, noble's kids, doctor's kids, there were many kinds of parents and many kinds of families in the world, and Edward had never seen the significance of its implications. -Which was naive of him, when he thinks about it.

It's when the whole village and mountain got burned did Edward realize he wasn't taking Ace's secret seriously enough. All those lives, lost because the Pirate King's son lived. -That was… disturbing.

The best Whitebeard could do was send a skeleton crew to East Blue to assess the situation. Just sail a few days away and sail the calm belt and they'd on over to East Blue across it, right?

Apparently, Marco assessed the situation more thoroughly. There was likely a buster call, so there would most likely be a Cipher Pol unit involved, or a Vice Admiral or an Admiral in the mix as well. And should there be survivors, some people would need treatment or supplies. So the least they can send over would be 12 strong men for fighting force, 4 on med team and a skeleton crew. Which later turned into 5 commanders, 7 strong men and 3 on med team because Marco would be joining the rescue team, he's also the only one who won't get burned if Ace turns into fire after the shock.

And after loading-up enough supplies, they'd managed to set sail in half a day and eventually reach their destination in 10 days, 9 days if they rush. Simple.


	3. When Pirates Stay on Land

**Chapter 4**

Everything was gone. Dead, burnt, dead and gone.

Fushia was destroyed, the mountains were black and bare, and even Marco from up high had reported there was nothing left. Not even the bandit house deep in the forest, just a large chunk of wood in a cleared-off area.

Everything was gone. And there was not a trace left of his brother, Luffy, or Dadan or Makino. Corpses were burnt to crisp, nothing was salvaged, no one needed help. Everyone was- dead.

Marco had been behind Ace when he suddenly took off to the direction of the mountains. Marco followed after him after telling the others he'll handle it.

Ace ran, the terrain was unfamiliar. The dense green of the jungle no longer making the usual path he'd known. The ground was black and muddy. The rain had come just the other day, and it was probably what ended the fire that ate the whole jungle. He was livid. This was his fault. His fault for existing. He continued to run until he was at a familiar clearing.

The bandit house. It wasn't even a house anymore. The structure was burnt black, the interior had collapsed into itself. The wood that fell were splintered and crisp, and Ace knew no one would survive this. Still, he dug. If there was the slightest bit of hope that he can prove they were alive. That they made it. He'd dig to see if they were there.

With his inhuman strength, he'd lifted and pushed away rubble and wood pieces. Burning the splinters that dug into his skin as he lifts the pieces away. Then he sees it. A hand, burnt and thin and black, sticking right up, reaching up for help. A help he never got before a large beam fell on him. Ace gulped, tears streaming down his eyes, hoping this wasn't Luffy.

He'd still cry for a bandit, he was still part of the Dadan Bandits, but he prays. Prays so strongly this wasn't his brother.

He lifts the large beam and sees the figure underneath. It was old Gerry bandit, whose face was all but burnt, he dies mid-scream asking for help. Ace feels sick.

He remembers this old man the most out of the lot. He was the oldest weakest bandit he'd steal food from every dinner without mercy. He sobs. He never wanted to cry for these bandits. They were jerks to him while he was growing up. Still, he was thankful for keeping him alive until he was old enough to do what he pleased. He was thankful.

He gets Gerry out of there, only to discover another bandit under with him. Kurtie Bandit, that jerk that keeps on picking Luffy up like a stray cat, but something wasn't right. He was burnt, sure, but there was something off with Kurtie's body. He takes them both out and sets them down on the clearing until he sees more bodies underneath. There were the other bandits. He could tell who some of them were. Perry, Joko, that one bandit that Dogra bit because he was tracking mud in the house.

Marco finally catches up to Ace, just as he'd laid the next three bandits down.

Marco didn't have to do an autopsy to know that something was wrong. Just one look at those faces, he knew they didn't die in a fire. There was no suffering, except for that one body, but the rest, they were either stabbed or dead and burnt to get rid of the evidence. Ace sobbed. He continued to dig through the rubble of the building, what Marco assumes was once a house.

He didn't ask Ace who these bodies were, but Marco decided he should start digging a grave for these people, as Ace would surely want to make one for the lot of them.

The Treehouse was burnt, the tree was dark, obviously dead, and ready to break the slightest bit of force gets on it.

Marco had seen such large trees before but never had he seen them in East Blue. The trunks were huge, and burning the whole lot looked hander and more impossible to do by natural means. This was done by accelerants, sprayed with chemicals to burn with fury as strong as a devil fruit could manage.

He sees Ace at the corner of his eye, before he jumps high, like a flea, and lands on a burnt branch. The branch cracks but by then he'd already jumped to another and another until he'd managed to land on the roof of a treehouse.

The leaves were burnt and dead. The last structure standing was the house way up high, but even then, the place was burnt and ridden with holes. It was no longer a safe structure and Ace was entering it.

Marco immediately flew up high to follow after Ace. Suddenly, he heard the loud snap of wood, the loud crack he knew meant it would soon fall down. Then he sees Ace escape the structure holding something in his hand. He jumped down, finding branches to soften his fall until he was safely back down in the earth.

Ace continued to walk. Turning his back against the treehouse as it fell and took other trees along with it. Ace walked away from the sight, and Marco could only follow.

The next place was a cliff edge. Even the grass was burnt and only stones were seen. Marco barely makes out a structure, a cros… a grave. And Ace just spares it a look before going past it, his face morphs into one of dark grief, bites his lips and creases his brows. He holds the net of cups on his hand while he holds his tattooed arm with the crossed-out S he refuses to get fixed. He walks away, and walks deeper into the burnt foliage.

There was a trash heap, and the activities were only starting to commence. There were burnt pieces of junk outside the walled city of Goa, but the new trash was only starting to pile up. Ace goes around it. He followed a path only he seems to know. Jumping over the thing and crawling under tunnels. He'd managed to go all the way around the walled city until he reached the other side of it, where there was a tall cliff edge which he proceeded to-

Ace jumped down the cliff, right towards the ocean.

Marco immediately transforms into his Pheonix form and dives down to fish Ace out of the water. Only for him to realize Ace wasn't fish food just yet. He looks up to see a plethora of holes. Caves. So he's in one of them then.

Marco flies up, peaks through every one of them, searching for Ace.

Then he finds him. Standing on an empty spot where something was once there gathering dust. There was a big space on the ground which looked like the shadow of a flipped over rowboat. And all around the cave were signs of activity, footprints.

"Ace." Marco calls.

"They-re… They took one. They might be out there." Ace explains as he wipes his tears. "We have to search for them." Ace says as he leaves for the entrance. "They survived." He'd whispered, a re-assurance to himself. "They're out there, they're alive. They'll survive." He says to himself.

Marco may not have met them yet, but if they're anything like Ace, Marco knew they'd be alive there somewhere, fighting tooth and nail if they have to.


	4. And Bandits Take to the Sea

**Chapter 5**

Dadan must have eaten something funny. Because she could not believe she was looking at a mirror.

Dadan could admit a lot of things about herself. 1. She is a coward. 2. She is a criminal, a no good bandit. And is fat- and believe it or not that was the hardest thing to accept after 25 years.

Yet the person staring at her right now was… a dream.

"Boss?!" Mogra asks from beside her, jaw hanging open and eyes wide. A look of disbelief on his face as he points a finger at her.

The two were still out shopping when Dadan saw a weird apple in one of the fruit stalls and decided to "buy" a few for the trip (while Dogra covertly stole more than she bought. About a barrel full of fruit.)

"Apples are good for your health and skin." The old lady selling the apples said. "Here's an extra for you dear."

Dadan thanks her but not the least bit guilty for stealing. "Good for health and skin, huh… Wouldn't do much with how fat I am." She smiles and nods to the lady.

She'd eaten the apples while they were walking and suddenly her body felt warm, then hot. She'd thought it was just the heat from the streets but then she started burning-up, and the next thing she saw was a beautiful orange haired woman in front of her, emitting steam and wearing her clothes.— Then she realized it was her. She was the beautiful woman!

Who knew apples were this effective for her health and skin!

Then her shirt began to slip. "Eeep!" She squealed as she rushed to a clothing store. Mogra followed after her.

After trying out twelve different outfits and haggling like a mother, she later on exited the store with 12 new sets of clothes and under wear. She was practically the same size when she was younger, but she was taller now.

She wore a pink dress, one she'd always dreamt of wearing, which was starting to feel surreal since she's only realizing now how unreasonable wearing a dress is. It's so airy and fresh, and her legs feels cold now. Luckily, she only bought 1 dress and the rest of her outfits were pants. She still wore her red coral beaded necklace. These were irreplaceable, and something she'd hang on to even if she died. Wait, will she even die? She must have turned younger, or maybe reduced her weight?

No. She still had grey hairs and she didn't get younger… She simply lost weight and fat and a few protruding bumps from fights she'd gotten into. What devil fruit did she eat? -Yes, this was definitely a devil fruit's doing. Years living with Luffy made her more aware of their existence and more imaginative to how it can be used. Think about what she can do! She can sell her abilities! Amazing weight reducer! Quick results! For a slimmer body!

"Why are we at the library?" Dadan asks Mogra.

"We should find out what fruit you ate before you end up selling your skills to find its only temporary later on, Boss." He reads her mind, since it's Mogra who knows her well, he then adds. "I also need to read on Grand Line navigation."

"Ugh, make it quick. I'd rather you buy a book instead on those other book shops." She points across the plaza where there were stalls for books and navigation. "I'll look for my fru-…" But she sees instead a very familiar head of black hair and orange hat.

"Ace!" She yells loudly. "Oi! Brat!" She marches towards the direction of the boy. There were many people in the square, and she seems to have been separated from Mogra. She marches on still, intent on confirming her suspicions. Then when she sees his black locks and grabs for his arm to pull on him, she yelps when her hand goes through fire instead.

"What do you want?" He responds coldly. Eyes shielded by the hat she knew belonged to him. No one else would wear such a striking orange hat with confusing smiley faces and her family's coral after all.

"Calm down Brat. I know its hard to believe but it's me. Dadan." She yells at him. He staggers back. Disbelieving. He pulls away from her. "I don't know you, fucking hag!"

"You stupid piece of shit! Go make your own dinner tonight I'm not feeding you a single grain of rice!" She yells back.

Disbelief was shown on his face. Dinner was the first thing she'd threaten them with, it naturally comes out of her mouth too. He looks at the slim woman. She was tall, as tall as Dadan, but that dress and her face and her body. Every thing was unfamiliar. Then he looks at the string of beads on her neck. The very same corals she'd given to him before he left.

"Boss!" Mogra finally catches up to her. His eyes water as takes in the sight of Ace. "Ace!" He cries. Now Ace knew, that was definitely Mogra, although his chicken parts were covered with a hat and a fake beard.

"Mogra! You guys are alive!" He'd clapped their shoulders. Ace was glad, relived even. But they'd have to be dead before he'd show them any real affection.

Now on to the real business. "Where's Luffy?" Ace asks.

"He's back at the harbor with Makino." Dadan grumbles. "What are you doing here brat?"

"If it isn't obvious, I came to check up on Dawn. -I've just been there actually." Ace admits. Dadan falters.

Truthfully, she wanted to blame it all on him. She was bitter about loosing her home and her family of bandits. She wanted to live in peace, without an active bounty and retire in a house in the mountains. But that wouldn't make it any better now, would it.

"Whatever you saw, forget about it. It's their fault for not following the protocol." Dadan grumbles. "C'mon. Morga needs navigating tools to get us through the Grand Line."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Grand Line can't be navigated with just any normal tools. You need a log pose to get you to the next island."

Dadan halts in her tracks. "I- I knew that brat. We were just checking if there are any in the stores."

"Yeah, and those stores don't have log poses. Log poses are rare, and manufactured only in the Grand Line. Most blues don't have log poses on sale." Ace follows up. "I don't even think you guys are ready for the Grand Line. Why 'd you suddenly want to go there anyway?"

"Brat, as If I'd have to answer that." Because she had reasons… she thinks… she can make up reasons… "Mt. Corvo is the only place with trees that big, and animals that dangerous in East Blue. No other jungle would do unless it's like Mt. Corvo, other wise no good Marines and Bounty Hunters are going to go after our heads and there'll be no wild animal or dense forest to stop them."

"Stupid old hag! East Blue is the weakest sea. The Grand Line is a place for the toughest pirates in the world. As in strong people from all over the world are gonna be there, and not just any greenery or wild animal will hold them back."

"I know that! But I'm a Bandit! I do what I want! If I want to live in the jungle why the heck would you care!" Dadan all but screams, attracting unwanted attention.

"What are ya'll looking at?! Get back ta' yer' lives." She screams at the crowd as she storms off. Mogra and Ace follows her to the docks.

Little did they know that little scene had attracted one of the strongest marines in the base.


	5. Family Matters

**Chapter 6**

Marco was minding his own business on the streets of Logue Town when he caught sight of an octopus on wheels. The octopus was HUGE. It was the size of a sea king. Heck, it was a sea king. Something Marco never thought he'd see in East Blue of all places. As the octopus pass by the road he was supposed to cross, he felt a presence beside him.

"Oaaaahhhh!" He turns to see a teenage girl, black hair and shining black eyes wearing a straw hat. "Hey, mister! You're head looks like a pineapple!" The girl says with a smile. "Can I taste it?" Reaching one hand out to supposedly "taste" Marco's hair.

"Lucy!" She was immediately pulled back by a young boy with dark green hair tied back by his bandana, "I'm very sorry for how my sister acts." He apologizes. Holding the back of the girl's head and pushing it down like him. "She didn't mean to insult you, sir. She was just complimenting your hair."

"Uh, it's no problem yoi. Actually, I get called that by a friend, but… I was born with this hairstyle." He'd find himself explaining.

"That's even cooler! It's like the pineapples chose you to be their leader!" Luffy continues to introduce herself. "Hiya, I'm Monkey D. Lucy. I'm gonna be a pirate!" The girl stated with a smile. Her frilly pink dress fluttering in the breeze, and Marco really should be going now, but these two were very interesting characters.

"Well, if you're going to be a pirate. I should give you some advice." Marco smiles back. "Try wearing pants instead of something very frilly. You never know when the wind will blow, and how cold some places could be, yoi."

"Wise words from a pineapple!" Lucy laughs. "Shishishi", he hears her special laughter. "I know I should be wearing pants, I prefer wearing shorts tho, but I have to wear a dress today because it's all I can find that's clean. I don't normally wear this either so I get why you'd want me in pants when I turn into a pirate."

"Lucy, we have to go. The octopus had passed." The boy points out the cleared road. He faces Marco and politely smiles "It was nice meeting you, sir. Sorry again for my sister." He'd waved at him, politely. Lucy waved too, more energetic and so like her, by the few seconds Marco had talked with the girl.

Before Marco could cross the street, he gets called. "Marco!" He turns to see Ace with a woman in a pink dress and a bearded man carrying multiple sacks and bags. Ace's face was smiling wide. It seems he knows them.

"I found them!" He called.

The woman eyes him up and down, scrutinizing him.

"Mogra-san!" Marco hears from behind him.

"AAAACCCCCEEEEEE!" Marco hears before a ball of pink and black launches itself past him, landing on Ace who wasn't even pushed back by the force of the girl's audible smack on his bare skin.

"Luffy! I missed you too!" Ace says it so casually as he wraps his arms around the body latching itself over his torso before he stops. "Why are you wearing a dress?" He raises a brow.

Luffy laughs and smiles. "Same reason Ma-chan's dressed like a boy, and it's cleaner than the other clothes..." Luffy responds. "I'm still gonna be a pirate, but not yet!" Luffy clarifies.

"Brat, get down from him, you're not supposed to be rowdy here and I can see down your skirt." Dadan scolds. Luffy only pouts but gets down from Ace's torso.

That's when Luffy realizes, "Dadan doesn't look like Dadan." He points out. Everyone stares at her.

"Ah, what happened to you… boss?" Makino questions, still in character for the sake of Marco, who was mildly confused by the whole situation. Who's Luffy?

Dadan sighs. "I must have eaten a devil fruit or something." She scratches her head and huffs. "Nothing I can do about it now."

"Well, Dadan would still be the manliest of men in my eyes." Ace responds, which earns him a hit on the head.

"I'm a woman brat!" She huffs, "Especially now that I look like this." She tears up a bit. 'Stupid kids, shouldn't have raised them if they were gonna hurt my feelings.' She thinks to herself as she pouts.

The two boys she raised weren't phased by her tears, but there were other people who actually turned red and found her cute.

Suddenly, "Ace, Take cover!" Marco shouts as a canon ball comes flying at them.


	6. When Plans Aren't Met

**Chapter 7**

"Gahahahaha!" The very familiar, very frightening laugh calls after the canon ball he threw with his bare hands makes it's way to the group of criminals he calls his family.

"Gum-Gum!" The girl extends her arms an inhuman length, and catches the canon ball while it was still in the air. Marco and every one else who didn't know about the girl's powers stared in shock.

Lucy fixes her footing as the canon ball draws near her, she had pulled the cannonball close to her and spun once, ready to send the projectile back to where it came from. "Sling Shot!" She'd said, but the canon ball only got a few meters out till it hit Roger's execution stand, effectively destroying it like a stack of cups in a fair game.

"Oops." The girl had said. Everyone stared and screamed, slack jawed at the girl who's arms extended like rubber and re-directed the projectile. The few who knew about devil fruits only face palmed at the sight of the ruined execution stand. A national landmark, if anything else.

"G-G-G-Garp!" Dadan had screamed in fear.

"Huh? I know that shriek…" He stared at the thin woman with bright orange locks. She was wearing the very familiar red coral beads he'd once stolen and returned. "Dadan? That can't be you?!" Garp had suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Are you trying to kill us Gi-gi?!" Ace had screamed. "Dadan turned into skin and bones and you expect her to withstand that?! I thought you were a respectable marine! Look at the damage you did to the execution stand! How is Louge town gonna attract it's travelers now, huh?"

"Uhh… Luffy did that."

"Huh?! I didn't throw that! I was defending myself!" Lucy had protested.

"And why is my grandson in a dress Dadan?" Garp had, of course, changed the subject.

"I-idiot! How am I supposed to protect the kid without a base and a group of bandits huh?! How am I supposed to sail the seas when I know nothing about the damn world. Ever thought of that you ignoramus?! We're dressed like this because we're hiding you dumbass!" Dadan screamed at the Vice Admiral, until she realized who she was speaking to and backed off with polite corrections.

"I see…" Garp smiles. "Well, you're doing a bad job at this. So I'm gonna take my grandson before he becomes a pirate and train him to become a proper marine! Gahahahaha!"

"NO!/ Fuck off geezer!" Luffy and Ace scream their rejection.

"And you. Another way-ward grandson. You're coming with me too. I've yet to turn you two into proper law-abiding marines." Ace holds Luffy near, but before they can retaliate, Marco steps in.

"I think, it's time for us to depart." He'd said as he turns his feet into talons and his arms into wings.

"Ace, get back to the ship and tell everyone to set sail."

Ace nods, takes Luffy and Makino in his arms and runs.

"What about me?!" Dadan yells as she avoids Garp's grab at her hair.

"I think I'll just sail on out of here then, Garp-san." She takes Mogra by the arm and runs to the port where they anchored their ship. Once there, they spot Dogra already lifting the anchor and getting ready to depart.

"Boss, I saw the commotion in the square. Are we really setting sail?-" Dogra looks at her, wondering if it really is her. Magra didn't seem phased by anything, so this must be her… right? Instead, Dogra looks around and behind them. "Where's Luffy and Makino?"

"The last piece of shit I want to see is Garp, set sail, NOW!" She orders, but answers the next question as she works "Ace can keep Luffy and Makino." Dadan literally lifts the gang plank and locks it back into place in the boat.

When they set sail and were a distance from the harbor, another ship with wheel paddles had stationed themselves beside them. "Dadan!" Luffy calls from the ship. "Dadan-san!" Makino too.

"Your boat's too slow. Leave it!" Ace says, already tossing the gang plank across so that they can board. He took a rope and swung across to the other side to help them pack.

"Just get the supplies and get on here." Ace crosses the plank back-up to help them load.

For the second time that day a canon ball came flying their way. The canon ball had hit and punctured a hole on the bandit's ship. Effectively springing Mogra and Dogra into packing the supplies and tossing it up to the other larger ship for Luffy and Makino and a few more people to catch. All too soon, a navy ship was already on their way to them, only for the sails to be torn by a flaming blue bird.

"That'll buy us some time." Ace said as he'd tossed a bag over to the other boat, before another canon ball was headed their way. "Spoke too soon."

"It's GARP!" Dadan shrieks as she tied another bag closed and tossed it over to Mogra. The canon ball missed, but the splash and waves it caused rocked the boat a violent way, further assisting the sinking happening to their boat.

After a few seconds Dadan had had enough, she ties her bag on Dogra and ties him to the rope Ace used to jump to theirs. "Stay there." Dadan commands the little bandit.

"Mogra, Ace, get to the other ship. We're done here."

"But there are still…"

"Leave it." Dadan orders as she climbs up the gang-plank.

Mogra takes the last bags he could, ties it on himself and gets to climbing after Dadan. Ace just jumps the last of the way.

The moment Mogra got on, the ship's wheel paddles sped on, away from the island, the sinking boat and the marines. The blue flaming bird, the Pheonix, was hot on their trail.

Dadan falls on deck, legs spread and feet aching from the running they've done. Good thing she's wearing boots instead of the heels she knew she'd never like to wear. The dress stuck to her sweaty skin, but was she ever thankful for the breeze it let into her legs.

"Boss! Are you ok?" Mogra asks from the side. "Dadan-san!" Makino chimes from the other. "I'll get you some water." She immediately gets back to worrying.

Then some nurses appeared from the door and had immediately gone to assist them, doing whatever they wanted to do and checking on their vitals and asking questions she didn't want to answer.

"Fucking' get away from me bitches!" She'd screamed before she realized they were scared of her by the look on their faces. She needs to calm down. These are Ace's nakama... they're safe.

She breathed out. "Just, let me rest a bit. This day is stupid enough as it is." She gets up, only to wobble and he helped up by one of those nurses. "There are beds in the infirmary. I'll help you there." The nurse had assisted. "Thank you, and sorry- for yelling."

"I understand." She'd said with a smile. The nurse was young, maybe about Makino's age, yet she was very professional on assisting her, a woman twice her size in height into the room that smells like the hospital. The infirmary, she reckons. "You're Ace's foster mother?" She'd asked. Dadan nods. "You- He's very much like you, in a way."

Dadan raises her brow as she settles on the infirmary bed. "How so?"

"Well, when he first ended up in our ship, he was a lot like how you screamed at me… He isn't used to doctors, is he?"

Dadan snorts a laugh. "First time he'd been to a doctor, he bit his hand for treating his broken arm. Kid broke it and didn't tell anyone about it till I tossed him up to his room after dinner. Honestly, I didn't think he'd be capable of breaking anything of his. Thought he was sturdy since he'd never really broke when he was a baby, y'know. Never really cried much either."

"I take it you aren't too good with doctors either, Dadan-san?"

"Nah.- I lived by stealing medical supplies and using forest herbs and weeds. Never been to a doctor my life." She'd explained as she was tucked into bed by the nurse.

"Dadan-san?" Makino enters with a glass of water. "I brought you water."

"Leave it. I'll just- take a nap. Watch over Luffy for me, get him settled down so he doesn't fling himself over board."

"Yes, I'll do that."

"And don't let the kid near the rations." Dadan's last sleepy reminder before she slips into unconsciousness.


	7. You Think You Know Your Kin

**Chapter 8**

Marco lands on deck, shifting from Phoenix to man. He first sees the two men sitting down on either side of the infirmary door, probably protecting their "boss". Ace was with them, reasoning with them and explaining that it was safe, that they were fine.

"You two should just get some sleep, you're safe here, I swear." He'd scratched his head. The two were polite about it. The larger one with the fake beard spoke with a soft calming voice while the other one stood on guard, suspicious to everyone nearing the door, preferring to keep silent.

"It's fine Ace, we're not sleepy at all. You should just take care of Luffy with Makino." The polite one waves the younger off. Marco calls it bullshit. The bags under the man's eyes tells him he hadn't slept well for quite some time. They both had bags under their eyes, unhealthy purples that Marco had seen many times before on PTSD patients and people with nightmares. They weren't fine at all.

"I don't like the sea." The smaller one admits. "Everything moves, a lot. I can't sleep in this state anyway." Marco makes his way to them.

"I heard you can't sleep on motion from the waves, well, how about on a hammock? The sleeping quarters downstairs have a lot of hammocks, yoi." Marco also adds a quick assessment. "You have bags under your eyes, and they're turning purple."

"It's black eye from a bar fight." An obvious lie, now Marco knows where Ace gets his excuses from.

"Yeah, well, I'm a doctor. It doesn't take much to see that you two hadn't slept for a while, yoi." The two shied back sheepishly. "Look, I'm the first mate of the Whitebeard pirates. Take my word, we'll keep you safe until we reach our main ship. Then you can go meet our captain and you'll be allowed to stay wherever you should choose, yoi." Marco assures them. "You can't protect anyone at the state you're at." He'd added. "One of you can sleep in the infirmary with your boss. There's a couch there for visitors to sleep on, yoi."

"I'll stay. Dogra, you get the hammock." The bigger one announces, getting up. "Your words… I hope you keep them." He says to Marco before he enters the infirmary.

"Ace, you can show him to the sleeping quarters. I have a call to make." Marco waves, heading for the navigations and communications room. "And we keep our word. You're safe here with us, yoi."

* * *

"Hiya! I'm Luffy. And I'm hungry." He'd immediately introduced himself to the crew in the mess hall. The four chefs in charge had immediately gone to feeding the boy (now dressed as a boy), before they realized he had two times of Ace's appetite. Luckily Makino was there to help them with the preparation. She slices the bread into 4s, slices the meat thin into many strips and doubles the amount they usually prepare.

And while they were preparing, Luffy was inhaling food like a vacuum, proving to be more effective at disgusting and amazing the crew in the ship.

"Lu! Didn't you just eat at Loguetown?"

"Buf Aghs! ammg hunghhy." (But Ace, I'm hungry) He says without stopping, practically shoveling the food into his mouth.

"I know Lu. You're always hungry…. But you have to control yourself when you're at sea. There are no beasts to hunt here, except for fishes and sea kings, and we're running on limited rations." A thought comes to Ace's mind, "Hey Lu, do you want to see the sea kings?"

Luffy swallows the food in his mouth before he answers. "I don't like sea kings. They hurt Shanks…"

"Well, then, I guess you'll starve if you don't want to catch any for supper."

"Ehhh! But I don't want to starve. But I don't like sea kings either." Ace holds his laughter at the conflicted boy. His baby brother was so cute when he's confused or when he's thinking. Still, Ace better steer the conversation away before his brother overheats from thinking.

"Have you tasted sea king before, Lu?" Ace asks, the younger shakes his head. "No… not yet."

"Then how can you be sure you won't like it? C'mon Lu. Let's go fishing while we're still in East Blue. We're nearing the Calm Belt so we can cross it to get inside to the New World." Ace explains while he nears the chefs and Makino, "Ma-chan, I'll take over Luffy duty. You can take a break."

"Ace, have you eaten yet?" One of the chefs asks, in which Ace nodded to confirm. "Good. Commander Thatch will scold us if you hadn't. He also reminded us to check if you've drunk your medicine yet."

"Thatch, even when you're hot physically here, you're still annoying me to no end." Ace shakes his head fondly at the reminder. He'll be back on the Moby soon enough, and then he'll see Thatch to tell him exactly that.

"C'mon Ace! Fishing!" The energetic rubber boy cheers as he runs to the deck.

"Lu! Wait-up! You aren't supposed to go on deck without a-" but the boy was already gone, up the deck which was followed by multiple screams and shouts of his crew members, some cursing the boy for whatever cockamamy reason he's gone and done.

"Ace-san," Makino calls from behind the counter. The sight of her there with a smile brings a familiar warmth to Ace's cheeks, fueled by his childhood crush. The blush, of which the other chefs do not fail to notice, remains red as Ace diverts his eyes away from her. Her words, however, held the opposite effect "-the chaos has been unleashed." She giggles.

And Ace knew, it takes one hell of a woman to take care of Luffy. She was no maiden in distress on this sea.

* * *

The den-den mushi rings as Marco sorts out his report. When the line picks up, the receiver was a very familiar voice. "Izo it's-"

"Marco! We were about to call!" Izo spoke fast, as if in dire need.

"Wait- what-"

"It's Pops! He's- he's not breathing right. The nurses are doing their best and the doctors can't do any more than they can." The more Izo tried to explain, the more Marco can see the den-den imitating his expression. He was close to crying, but he knows Izo wouldn't cry for something so simple as a breathing tube clogging. It was serious.

"What happened Izo? Tell me everything you know, yoi."

"He was doing fine, sitting on deck-" he sniffles, "then suddenly, he has a hand to his chest and he was-"

"Say no more. It's going to be fine. I'll fly back there as quick as I can. Tell the doctors if they can take a look at his heart too, yoi. It must be another one of those…" The secret they don't want anyone to know was that Whitebeard was dying with cancer, tumors spreading fast to most of his internal organs. Something they just couldn't treat no matter what they tried.

"Hurry back Marco…." Izo ends the call.

Marco immediately goes on deck. The next commander in charge would be Vista. Now he'll tell Vista first then he's gonna have to fly back to Moby. Should he also tell Ace's family?

The moment Marco gets on deck, he is met with Ace fishing for sea kings by using Luffy as bait, tied around with rope and dangling at the other end of the fishing pole. Luffy, on the other hand, looked non-concerned that he was a devil fruit user hanging over the ocean, as he was telling the fishes and sea kings about how he would taste like if he were cooked with soy sauce.

Marco groans.

"Oi, Luffy. Sea kings don't want to eat happy bait. They smell fear." Ace adds when nothing was emerging from the ocean.

"Eh, but I'm not afraid of em." Luffy shouts as he struggles in his binds.

The rest of the crew were just watching on deck at the shenanigans of the brothers, all of them looked worried tho, but there was no action yet and Luffy willingly offered to be bait.

"Ace, I'm going to fly back ahead, yoi." Marco says instead. "I'm trusting you with navigating this ship back to Moby, and Vista is in charge," Marco says as he turns back to the galley where he'd need to pack his things. "- And I'm expecting you back in nine days, so help me I will-"

"Get back home in 9 days. 10 if there's a rough patch of storm and call if something comes up. Understood, Commander." Ace says with determination. Ace wasn't one to skimp on his duties, nor take it laxly. Ace was a very responsible and bright kid, and Marco had finally met the "parent" who made him as he is today.

"That's- good. Well. I'll be off now, yoi." Marco turns, brisk walking for the galley. "Also, your brother has been eaten by a giant fish, yoi." He points to the fishing line where Luffy had baited a very large, Gyarados like fish.

"Luffy!" Everyone on deck finds themselves exclaiming as the fish flounders itself on the stick. Ace pulls it up and throws a "Hiken!"

Marco re-thinks his opinion. Crafty, yes, bright- definitely. Responsible-

"Hey Ace! I got a sea king!" Luffy emerges, safe, from the now-dead fish.

"That's not enough for dinner, Lu." Ace sighs. "Well, it's back to fishing. Get your ass back in the rope."

Definitely not as responsible as he'd hoped.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**So from here on out, no definite or indefinite updates. Still building up this story tho**,,,** for the fated day WB. meets Dadan. TvT Which I have no idea how just yet because my first idea was scrapped like paper. XD This is gonna take a while folks. Give me some inspiration should you try! :D I would greatly appreciate it! :D**


	8. But Even They Change Too

**Chapter 9**

Dadan wakes to an unfamiliar room, to unfamiliar smells and unfamiliar things… such as a thin delicate hand that goes to rub at her face…

For a moment she panics from the shock. Her hands… are tiny and fragile… so dainty, she thinks as she observes them, moves them around to check if they were really hers. Then she remembers what had happened. She ate a devil fruit.

But what devil fruit did she eat?

"Boss! You're up!" She hears to her left. She moves the curtain to see Magra just ready to stand from the couch.

"Stay there Magra, don't need yer help. I'm no weak dainty pansy.-" oh wait. I am one now. "Fetch me my ax." She grunts as she sits up, acting tough and not at all in discomfort by her new body with barely any fat to cushion her back. "And where's the brat?"

"They're outside boss. It's about time for breakfast." Magra explains as he finds her ax along with the other things that aren't supplies. "Uh, how exactly are you going to wear this on your belt now boss?"

"If I can't wear in in my belt, then I'll wear it on my back." Dadan scolds as she grabs her ax from him. She staggers as she realizes it was unusually heavy, her arms can't hold it up as much as she used to. "God, I need a smoke." She says instead, re-directing Magra's worried stare at her shaking muscles. She places the ax away, to use for another time.

"Smoke after breakfast boss. The food here tastes really good." Magra comments, happy for the change in the subject. Dadan was still taller than her, but it was all so very strange serving such a slim woman. It was new and concerning. He wasn't sure he liked it… if he liked her this way.

"Stop staring and get on with the day." Dadan scolds with a punch to Magra's head.

"Uh- that's weird. It's not as-" painful. "Uh- no! I meant. It's not often you would go easy on me boss, ehehehe." But Dadan knows that's not what he wanted to say. What he truly meant was- she was weaker.

"-Boss…"

"I suddenly don't feel so well. Get me breakfast instead." Dadan orders as she gets back to bed and lays back down, facing away from him. "And take your time. I'm not that hungry." Dadan shoos him away, seemly not caring.

"O-ok boss. I'll be back."

When the coast was cleared, Dadan finally let out her frustrations. "Damn it!" She says as she punches the pillow. "Damn it, damn it DAMN IT." She chants for every punch, getting angrier and angrier the moment she realizes how much less a power she had with every hit on the pillow. Then suddenly she punches a wall, and the pain instantly went to her fist, her arm and the very joint that connects it to the socket. She stiffles her scream into the pillow she pinched.

When had a punch to a wall, a _wooden_ wall, ever hurt her so much? She'd been sent flying into walls dozens of times before when she had to deal with three brats and a violent Vice Admiral. She'd been punched thousands of times before in battles and fights. She'd been dragged everywhere and tortured and had undergone such intense training in the mountains, so why? Why is she so weak?

"Dadan-san." A call from the other side of the door. "I-I'm the nurse who helped you yesterday, may I intrude?" She'd called. The nurse from yesterday?…

"Y-yeah. Just. Give me a moment." She fixes herself, whipes her tears and positions her arm to her side, cradling most of the pain as she crosses her arms in a show of disinterest. "Yeah, come in."

She enters, the young nurse who she recalls from yesterday…. Who's name she doesn't know….

"Uh, who are you again?" She bluntly asks. Because she'd always been blunt, and she'd always been clueless of the things outside her world.

"My name is Josephine. I'm part of the 1st division nurses in-charge of first aid."

"I'm Dadan. You can only address me as Dadan-san." Because she'd rather not be called anything else- like grandma. She'd take her name over grandma any day.

"Alright Dadan-san." Josephine calls her with a smile. "Ah, I almost forgot! Commander Marco mentioned you ate a devil fruit. I brought a copy of the devil fruit encyclopedia with me." She brings her a book. The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, written in blocky letters at the title of the well worn hard cover.

"Perfect." She says as she begins to skim the book, not really reading the words because, as much as she hates to admit it, she isn't the best at reading letters. With the new distraction, she positions her injured arm to hold one cover of the book while the other flips the pages.

"What did it look like Dadan-san?" The nurse asks as she looks over her shoulder and at the pages she were turning, only looking a the pictures and ignoring the blocky lettering of each fruit.

"It looked like an apple. A pinkish apple with swirls and a swirly…" -"Like that one?" She points to a picture. Dadan looks and immediately recognizes it.

"P-har-ma-P-har-ma no Mi." She reads the name of the fruit. Pharma-Pharma no Mi.

Josephine gasps in shock. "Oh my! That's-!" She exclaims, eyes wide as she looks Dadan in the face.

"W-What does it do? Will it kill me?" Because she was but a simple minded humble clueless woman.

She has no idea what a phar-ma is… It sounds a lot like farm-a. Will this make her a farmer-human? Wait, isn't it common to be a farmer? Well, that's a useless fruit. She can't believe it. She lost her strength, her endurance and every thing she'd worked hard to gain… to become a farmer? How is she supposed to lead her family of bandits now? How is she supposed to survive in a mountain now that she was this weak?

"No Dadan-san! It won't kill you," Josephine explains "-In fact… This fruit can cure almost every sickness in the world!" She exclaims in joy.

"W-What?!"

"Yes! I know this is one of the most desired devil fruit for medical purposes. One of the devil fruits said to be able to give anyone the ability to live forever, only comparable to the Ope-ope no Mi. Like the Ope-ope no Mi, when the fruit is left in capable hands, the user can grant immortality to a person. Both the Ope-ope no Mi and the Pharma-pharma no mi is said to be worth B 5,000,000,000 when sold!" She explains, and as she spouts more facts from her background knowledge,"With this fruit, you can cure Pop's illnesses! You can extend his life and insure peace, Dadan-san. You must meet him! I'll explain everythign to the commanders for you-" She trails off, making plans to get her to meet some guy she calls Pops, then more plans to get her tested. Hair samples, Urine Samples, Blood samples, DNA samples... other samples that Dadan has no idea what she was talking about anymore.

"WAIT! NO! God Damn it Woman! Listen to me!" She shakes Jospehine into silence. With the most threatening voice she can conjure, she tell her what she wants to do. "No one must ever find out-"

"But what about Ace?"

"You can tell that brat, but not the other little brat. He can keep his lips shut about everything, including all the crimes he knows he's done. Believe me, I've tried... but Luffy is an open book, and that brat is the worst liar. I get everything I know about what Ace had done through him." Wait. This was not what she needed to talk about. "But that's not what I-"

"But- your abilities can be used for the ultimate good! You can save lives Dadan-san!" Josephine return the topic, she states her stand with stars in her eyes as she keeps rambling on about more people who'd want the fruit. The more she talks about marines, The World Government and the scientists of the world, the more the color drains from Dadan's face.

Dadan imagines herself, a lab rat for the white coats. Trapped in a hidden base somewhere in the world. No connection to the outside, restricted of her freedom, forced to do things she doesn't want to do- Actually, isn't that what she'd been subjected to for the last 20 years of her life under Garp's tyranny? The white coats being Garp's marine coat and the other things just self-imposed isolation in order to quell her anxiety of endangering her family to the enemies she'd made from her unspeakable pas-...

Then Dadan hears it amongst her other thoughts. She pales until she hears about who else would want them "- The Celestial Dragons, they would also want your abilities. They might brand you and make you their slave-", she was all but as pale as a sheet.

"D-Dadan-san!" Josephine screams when Dadan faints back to her bed. All the blood disappeared as she'd heard just how important the fruit she ate was… as she slowly descends to unconsciousness, she asks but one question to the gods of the world.

What did she do to deserve this?

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**Well, it took me this far to introduce the Pharma-Pharma no Mi. More explanations in the next chapter. **

**Surprisingly, I've been writing a lot about this. I know I'm not the best writer, but damn, I'm giving myself a pat on the back for typing out this much in 4 days. What an accomplishment. XD Heck, I even have other ideas that are scrapped, about how Dadan and Whitebeard should meet,,, but dang, I want to include that as extra stories below every chapter. So, what do you guys think? Should I instantly skip to some of the WhitebeardXDadan moments/shorts I've written or do I make with the timeline? Wait until They've actually met before I put in the shorts about them meeting that inspired the whole thing... Or all the "family moments" that I wrote about Dadan and Whitebeard and how good they would look together. XD Because trust me, I'm good at writing sweet things. :D I may not be good at everything else (points to the whole fic like it's a tropical storm on the map), but sweet things comes naturally to me. Sweet thing and painful things. XD (Dream Dadan ver. and Mountain Bandit Dadan ver.) You guys would LOVE IT! XD XD XD **

**Well, Enjoy this while it's still up, because, as I've said. If I think I don't want to continue this anymore, I'm deleting the whole story,,, and the re-write this again when I actually have talent and practice and skill to make it better... but who knows how long that would take. :/ XD**


	9. When Faced With Troubles

**Chapter 10**

"The Pharma-pharma no Mi. Paramecia Type Devil Fruit.

Can let the user produce the medicine they want in any form they need it with the condition that the user upholds a sacred/sanitary body. A tainted body can cause the effects of their powers to become harder to control, weaken or become ineffective entirely.

The previous user, a nun, was able to pinch their skin and produce pills, sweat out elixirs and scrape out powders from different parts of their skins. Even their hair can be used as medicine or toxin should they mix it in liquids. It is said that the previous owner of the Pharma-pharma no Mi gorged-out their eye to give sight to the permanently blind child. Cut out their hand and fed it to the amputated in order to grow back the same appendage. The Pharma-pharma no Mi is only limited to the user's strength to produce the quantity they need and the imagination to design the medicine to work."

"So in-short, it's useless on Dadan." Ace chimes in. The people around the table were speechless. Magra, Dogra, Makino and Luffy were gathered together to read the entry on the fruit Dadan had eaten. They knew her best, and really, there was nothing they could say about how this fruit could ever be beneficial to Curly Dadan.

Dadan, who treated wounds with a bandage and a slap to the back. Dadan who treated stomach aches with more food to eat to poop the bad food out. Curly Dadan who treated bear wounds with sake and bandages. The very same Curly Dadan who uses the same thread and needles for sewing clothes and medical stitches.

The very same woman who made them sweat out their colds and let them play outside with the flu. The same Curly Dadan who only ever drinks tea to warm up on the winter and not really use it for anything else like medicinal practices that Sabo taught them about.

The very same Curly Dadan who's imagination is limited to the things she sees in her everyday life, which is very limited might they add, being cooped-up in a house on the mountains in a jungle all the time. The very woman who rarely steps out of the designated hunting trails, letting the other male bandits do the hard work and supervising the operations from the safety of a hidden base. The Dadan who-

Makino chimes, "Dadan-san isn't that-"

"Ma-chan, not to offend you but…. Dadan is as dim as they come. That's the whole reason Garp left me to her. She knows literally nothing about the world, like she'd never left the mountain all her life." Ace explains. "She knows nothing but house chores and banditry. Outside of that, she can't even read a whole sentence without stuttering." Ace explains blankly. "For now, we should move accordingly and treat her as an invalid. She can't do the gritty things she used to do, neither is she allowed near her axe which is now two times her weight. If we want to keep her clean for her powers to be effect-"

"That's not fair Ace! Boss wouldn't want that!" Dogra argues, seconded by Margra. "We can't treat the boss like that forever! She's the boss! She'd end up doing what she wants with or without us."

"We're not gonna treat her like that forever. We're just gonna treat her like a fragile lady until she gets a hang of her powers, that's all. All she'll have to do is study-up on it."

Makino interjects, shaking her head. "Ace, I don't think this is-"

"That's a dumb idea. Stupid Ace." Luffy comments from his seat beside Makino and Magra, right across Ace on the long table.

"What was that you idiot?" Ace grabs Luffy by the neck and nuggies his brother's head.

"Aaaace! No! Stooop! I give, I give!" Luffy struggles in Ace's tight hold. Ace give him a few more just to annoy him, but lets him go after, letting the younger's head snap back to its normal place. "You're so mean Ace!" Luffy retort with a pout. "I still think you're doing it wrong. Dadan is not weak." Luffy crosses his arms.

"Lu… I'm not calling Dadan weak. Just that she needs to be a little more careful of herself, that's all. We need to be careful of her if she wants to remain sanitary enough to use her powers."

"But what you're saying is still not right! Dadan doesn't want to be weak and clean! She's going to train until she gets her strength back. She's also gonna eat and drink sake and cook meat, like she always does around the bandit house."

"Those are some of the things we're gonna have to take-over for her. She can't do house work if she wants to remain sanitary, she doesn't have to cook or be near smoke since we have cooks and Makino with us. Magra and Dogra can do the heavy lifting and she'll have nothing to worry about. She can just rest up and try to study up on her powers."

Luffy pouts, "She was born to fight…"

"Now she is made to heal. She has to study Luffy, so that she can use her powers."

"Well, what if she doesn't want to use her powers? Ever thought of that stupid Ace?"

"Lu,-" Ace completely ignores the unrelated comment, "-she ate a Devil Fruit. What idiot wouldn't use a devil fruit they ate for the rest of their life?"

"Dadan." Luffy answers with certainty.

"Nggg- Luffy…" Ace grits his teeth and just gives up. There was no arguing with his brother, was there? "Luffy, I don't think you understand how- important her devil fruit is. Her fruit can heal _**ANY SICKNESS**_. She might even be able to heal my captain of his sickness, or my biological father's sickness or other sicknesses that doesn't have a cure yet. She could save HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS of LIVES."

"Dadan is a bandit Ace. She doesn't want to share her meat either." Luffy argues, standing from his seat. Most people wound't know what he was talking about, but they know what he means.

"But she shares her meat to the bandits!" Ace reasons, mimicking the action.

Makino interjects. "Ace-san, Luffy, how about we ask her what she wants to do? If she wants to use her power or if she wants to train and get dirty until she's strong enough to live on a mountain again."

"I recon in motion!" Luffy chimes. "It's SECOND in motion Luffy…" Ace corrects, the tension diffused.

Ace breathes. He hates arguing with Luffy. It's always so frustrating how strong willed his idiot brother is. "Fine. We'll ask her what she wants and then we act. If she wants to learn to use her devil fruit then she'll study medicine under the first division for at least a year. If she want to go back to being a bandit, then she trains. Do we have a deal?"

"Un." Luffy nods. "Deal." Luffy takes Ace's hand…. And the brothers proceeds to play arm wrestling, which Luffy looses. "Aaaahgh. You're still stronger than me…"

"I'm you're big brother, of course I'm stronger than you cry baby." Ace smiles. All the tension from a while ago gone, seemly replaced by a lighter mood.

Magra and Dogra watch the brothers. Of course, Dadan is practically their foster mother, so yes, they do have a right to decide what she can do with her life now… but Dadan is still their Boss, and they know her. She wouldn't simply be studying nor working-up to get her strength back. Her kids may be underestimating her, but the two bandits knew her before she became a mountain bandit. She never left Dawn island, true, but that didn't mean she was a small time crook.

There was more to the story of Curly Dadan than these kids think, but before she became their foster mother, she was something else entirely. Her crimes were so outlandish, even Garp the Fist was amusement with her, even after he beat her after chasing her around for months; and while her crimes didn't spread as far and wide, she was someone known enough to attract some other foes that she eventually beats.

Then the day arrived when Garp caught and beat her and suddenly they were forced to quit. They were confined to one place,- to one turf. Heck, the turf was so far away and desolate, even that Higuma guy couldn't reach them. Off to one of the more dangerous areas on Mt. Columbo.

She decided that Curly Dadan would be a name that would never be heard outside the four corners of her turf, and she kept it secret for 24 years. Now that her bounty has re-surfaced, it was only a matter of time before old enemies return and new adventures are made… even if her bounty poster looks nothing like her now, the way she looks at present is close to her figure when she was younger. Anyone could put two and two together and realize-!

Magra wants to cry… This was exactly why they retired early….

Dogra just sulks. They were obviously being underestimated…. He wants to go home now… but without a place to call their own, it looks like they'll have to carve out their own place again from scratch. He just hopes they don't end up doing the wrong choices like they did last time….


	10. What Could Us Mortals Do?

**Chapter 11**

Dadan wakes to the faces of the two brats, only inches away from hers, like they purposefully did to freak her out when they were kids.

"Gaaahh!" She screams as she was given a mini heart attack. "What the hell are you two brats doing?!" She screams at them.

While Luffy laughs, Ace answers "You didn't look like Dadan when you were sleeping." Ace explains with the most straight forward expression. Dadan would have thought he was serious if only he didn't crack a teasing smirk, the kind of smirk that would come before he hands over the painful slap of words. "We really thought you weren't the old hag until you woke up and started screaming our ears off like a banshee."

"Who are you calling a banshee, brat!" She scolds Ace, because really, when had she ever scolded him with anything but words? There are times where she'd punch him and tie him to a tree, but that was completely justifiable. Ace wasn't a child you can easily control when he's mad. This child doesn't cry like a normal child. Doesn't smile for normal reasons either. Ace was a very violent baby growing up. There was no pleasing a child that unsatiable.

Then they settle down. "Dadan." Ace calls her name. Like he always does when he'll report something really serious. Like a sighting of a storm or a large wild animal near their camp or Luffy getting injured… or a dead body in the woods. She gulps. Ace sounded more serious than she remembered. At the back of her mind, she panics at his tone like an authoritative figure but praises him on how well he's grown up.

"I was told that you've found out about the fruit you ate." He sounded like a true captain. Then she remembers this kind of talk, playing like he doesn't know anything at first. Starting by letting her explain everything she knows while he already knows everything. She may be dumb about everything, but she didn't become a leader of a group of criminals without going through the same talk.

"Yeah. That nurse, Jo-something gave me a book. Something about Farma-Farma."

"It's Pharma-Pharma no Mi, Dadan." Ace corrects. "What else do you know about the fruit?"

"Nothing much, only that it's wanted by the Celestial Dragons, and… they might capture me and make me their slave if they find out that I ate it… but I'm not sure if it's even that fruit! I just got tinier. Maybe I got another fruit? A slim-slim fruit or something? Haha, right?" Because she has her own plans. "Besides, I don't even know if I can grow potatoes from my hands or carrots and peas and stuff." Because that's what they want right? An endless supply of food? Food that can let them live forever or something…

"It's not Farm, Dadan you idiot. It's Pharma. That means you can make medicine from your skin and hair and stuff." Ace corrects, fist poised to punch, but instead, he retracts it. He settles back down on his seat and uncurls his fist. Dadan was actually braced for a punch. That was how she knew Ace showed his affection.

What is happening here?

"Uhh… Pharma?"

"It's from the word Pharmacy, which is a branch of medical science that deals with the study and production of medicine."

"So I'm a medicine-human now?"

"Sort of…. People can eat you and you'll cure them or kill them. "

"E-e-e-eat me?!" Dadan panics. She didn't want to be eaten.

"Relax, it's not that bad. You don't know how to use it yet so it's not like anyone's gonna eat you. Also, we decided NOT to tell anyone you ate the Pharma-pharma until you know what to do with it." Ace assured Dadan who looked like she really will get a heart attack.

"Oh… It-it better stay a secret!" Dadan tries to sound braver, but she was scared out of her wits.

She can keep secrets. Heck, no one realized Ace lived in the forest until the kid started running off on his own, strong enough to fend for himself. It should have been concerning, how well she'd kept Ace, a wailing needy baby, from the rest of the world. She had to make the bandits get all his baby things from another island. His clothes growing-up she sewed herself.

To think, she ate such an important devil fruit, more important than the farm-farm fruit she was thinking. She was downright chemical! She could do so many… "Well, what do I do with it?" What does she do with it? She does not have a single clue about Pf-har-whats-its. The only science she knows is how to grind leaves into tea, and how to find her way back to the hut at night. Of all the cursed fruits she gets stuck with, why to something she has no immediate use for?

"Wait. So this -"medicine" fruit took away all my muscles and strength? What did that have to do with anything medicine related?"

"The Pharma-Pharma no Mi is said to require it's user's body to be saintly and sanitary. That means the fruit cleaned your insides and got rid of all the filth… Your so-called muscles may have been just cold body fat or something."

"Who were you calling fat punk?!" Dadan screams.

"Ah! I forgot!" Luffy chimes in from the side, almost forgotten. "Do you poop?!"

"What kind of question is that?!" Both the brother and the foster mother react with a punch on the rubber boy's head. It really won't hurt him anyway.

"Eh, wait. You said it removed filth from this body… Do I even poop?" Dadan finds herself asking out loud and scratching her head. Luffy nods sagely. The two contemplate the ultimate question for quite some time...

"We'll find out once you've eaten." Exactly as Ace said it, Dadan's stomach began to grumble. "Uh… I haven't eaten anything since yesterday's lunch…"

"It's already almost dinner time. You slept for a really long time Dadan." Luffy adds, the stomach also grumbling. ("Luffy, you just ate before coming here!")

"It's probably just the fruit. I'm exhausted…" Dadan admits. "I'm- I don't feel like my old self. Heck, raising an arm is like raising an ax, and lifting my ax is like lifting a fallen down tree. It's annoying as its scary." Both boys look at her with concern. They didn't think the devil fruit she ate made it that much harder for her…

"Do you want to get your strength back?" Ace asks.

"Is that even something you need to ask? Of course, I'd want my strength back. How am I supposed to be a mountain bandit if I can't even lift an ax?" Ace's lips suddenly form into a frown. Did she say something wrong, she wonders?

"What if I told you that you can't use your devil fruit if you really want to be like your old self." Ace explains.

Dadan looks him in the eye and grunts defensively. "What are ya going on about?" She crosses her arms because she doesn't know where else to put them without wringing the sheets. She notices her arms were boney and sharp, and somehow, she misses the little bit of lady fat she likes to cup her hand around and squeeze when she's nervous.

"The Pharma-pharma requires the user to be saintly and sanitary. Saints don't kill people nor animals. Sanitary people don't mix with mud or sweat or work in the forest. Sanitary people are doctors and nurses. They work in hospitals and clean places. Dadan, if you plan to train yourself back-up from scratch, the Pharma-pharma's effects would be dulled or ineffective."

"Well, it's a waste on me anyway!"

"That's the thing. It's a waste on you now. What if we really need it? What if we teach you how to use it? Would you consider not going back to training just yet? Would you consider becoming a pharmacist instead?" Ace offers, a little hopeful despite the whole idea of her becoming a pharm-cist didn't appeal to her. "I can endorse you to the first division for one year. Just one year Dadan, then you can be free to go find a mountain for yourself afterward. What do you say?" Dadan wants to turn it down. Really she does. All she ever wanted and needed was a place to stay. A house to call her own. A bunch of people to boss around and a job that doesn't make her do much but "supervise". She was a simple woman, she didn't have much needs. Becoming a pharm-something would just complicate her life and give her hell and more responsibilities.

Just as she was about to turn it down, they were interrupted by a knock on the door, and a timid voice the foster mother and children associate with Magra. "Boss, I brought you your dinner."

"Great! I'm starving. Come on in." She says instead.

"Boss!" Dogra greets, keeping the door open for Magra to enter with the platter of food.

Dogra talks to the boys, "Ace, Luffy, we'll feed Dadan. You two can go to the mess hall and have your dinner. Ma-chan is waiting for you there."

"Food!" Luffy exclaims and makes his way to the mess hall. Ace had the decency to stay for last-minute instructions. "If you both need anything, just call. We'll be sailing thru the Calm Belt tonight, so the engines of the wheel paddles will be noisy, and there will be turbulences from sea kings. We advise everyone to stay in, just to be safe." The bandits nod, indicating they heard it. Ace waved goodbye before he went after Luffy, leaving one last advise. "Think it through Dadan. We have 8 days to go before we reach The Moby Dick. You can tell your plans to Pops and we'll support you as best we can." Ace leaves.

When the coast was clear and there were no doctors nor nurses in the room, the three decided it would be the right time to strategize their next course of action. While Dadan was eating, surprisingly slowly and in little bites, Magra spoke-up.

"Boss, I think you should try to learn pharmacy for a year."

Dadan chokes on her food. Dogra moves quickly to offer her the water at the nightstand. She coughs some more to get the grains stuck on her throat to go down before drinking the water and sighing when everything felt fine. "What?" Dadan caught out.

Magra repeats himself. "Boss, I think you should, at least, TRY to learn pharmacy for a year." He immediately hides behind the serving tray. Dadan wants to call him a fool but hesitates.

She never thought she'd actually be asked to learn anything more than the grunt work. All her life, she'd been asked to lift things, destroy things, threaten, beat-up and the occasional kill these people kind of jobs. She never really had the interest for the more "professional" jobs.

Sure, she admired tailors and seamstresses because they made decent clothes. She admired cooks because she eats food and good food was good food. She had a hand at black-smithing when she was younger, before she realized how hard it was for her to keep-up when she was so chaotic and unskilled… but to study something like medicine- it's intimidating, and she hadn't had the use for it. If you die, you die. She lived with that motto her whole life. She never really needed a doctor other than those special occasions where she realizes somethings are wrong- like Ace's arm and other things. There wasn't any appeal, to be honest.

"Why Magra?" Dadan should really turn down the offer. This wasn't her objective. She wanted a home, not work. Work was for the decent people, she was far from decent. "Give me 3 good reasons why I should study medicine other than helping people I don't give a fuck about." Because, in Luffy's words, she doesn't like sharing her meat.

"You may be able to completely cure Ace's arm." Magra's first reason. Dadan's lips form a thin line. That- that was her fault, for not bringing the kid to a doctor sooner. She should have been the responsible adult and realized; but two days later he still wasn't well, and by the time they reached another island, the bones had set misaligned. Ace would have to live the rest of his life with an arm support.

"Next reason." Dadan waves it off instead. Mogra asks, "I-is it a valid reason?"

"I'm not telling until I hear all the other reasons." She crosses her arms, so did Dogra who really didn't want to stray from the original plan. Magra sighs in his head, these two needs to see reason.

"Ok… next reason. Ace's crew is strong, and they can protect us while we look for a mountain. And another reason is that Ace's crew travels a lot, so we can scout the mountains to check if we like it during supply runs. While you're gaining new knowledge on using your fruit, we get to look for a new place to stay. And AND, if you do figure out how to use your fruit, we can sell it off as special medicine and make a killing!"

"That's 5 reasons," Dogra adds. "That's 2 too many. I don't like it." Magra knew Dogra didn't like the sea. The motion was making him dizzy, being too far away from land was making him anxious. Heck, he once mentioned he didn't like the smell of the sea which Magra thought was impossible until Dogra admitted it was too cold for his nose, salty and fishy for his throat and too breezy for him to breathe.

The two looked to Dadan who was contemplating it. "I understand." Was all she said. "Now let me eat in peace, and get me a cigarette. Goodness knows how much I need it."

"But Ace said-"

"I know what Ace said. I just need it now before I sock the both of you in the face for no reason." She screams at them. The two scramble away, retreats out the door, supposedly to look for a smoke for her to light.

Finally left alone to eat and think, she rests back to her pillow… "Dadan, you are given a choice, what will you do now?" She says to herself. Asking the question she has no conviction to answer. "Ahhhh, when did life get so hard?! I was retired for goodness sakes! Why does it feel like I'm young and stupid again?"

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**Gah! I want to delete this story, but I want it to at least get to the part where Whitebeard and Dadan meets! XD From today, I'll be uploading weekly or bi-weekly, depends. :/ Well, Enjoy! XD**


	11. We Have so Much to Do

**Hi Everyone, I didn't think everyone would take delete seriously. -What I meant was. I wanted to delete the other chapters (the past chapters all the way to the present) I made and skip right to the part where Dadan and Whitebeard meets, because that's what I originally REALLY- desperately wanted to write about but found I needed character development to get Dadan into the hearts of the WBPs without making her look like an opportunist like those gold diggers (*cough*Bakkin*cough*) after Whitebeard…. Now that I typed it down, I just realized the relevance of the previous chapters. :P Uhhh…. Never mind. Carry on. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 12**

Dadan goes to sleep and wakes the next day, getting up and trying to work thru a decent morning routine without feeling odd about her body. 'God, when was the last time I felt this awkward?' Thin limbs, she realizes, as she looks at the mirror, they were less— fatty. Less defined than she was expecting, comparable to sickly even- no wonder everyone's treating her like a patient. She looks dead on her feet, well, maybe that's exaggerating, but… compared to how she normally is, it's like looking at her withering with age.

She decides to look away instead. There was a shower in the infirmary restroom. She steps in, but the moment she turns it on, she looses the strength in her limbs and ends up falling down on the tiles, taking with her the shower curtain and getting hit by the metal rod on her arm before it crashes to the floor. She didn't even know she screamed for help because the next moment, the nurse, Josephine, comes in forcing the door open to help her with her trouble. She scrambles to use the shower curtain to cover her body.

Oh right, devil fruit users and sea water don't mix well together. They must be using filtered sea water, she thinks.

After a few attempts at bathing, still using treated sea water because, well, they don't have any other water. They settled to just using a rag and a basin.

"Sorry about this Dadan-san. Usually, the devil fruit users are strong enough to take a bath in the filtered water just fine." Josephine explains. Dadan just glares daggers at the rag. Really, was it worth being looked at as this weak for a stupid devil fruit?!

After the fiasco with the bath, Dadan ate breakfast at the mess hall, in which she was welcomed with…. "Luffy, you'll need to control your stomach. We're at sea." Ace scolds Luffy, already pulling a piece of meat away from Luffy's reach while the little brother stretches his neck to bite the meat, "slow down at least!" Luffy just pulls the meat closer, snapping his head back into place until Ace pulls it again and stretches his neck. "I will, I will!"

"Oi, brats. Why're you fighting about food so early in the morning. There's lots of sea and you have rope. Get to fishing." She'd say.

"Uh… Madame, mother of Ace…" A tall man with a top hat an an impressive mustache calls her attention.

"Dadan-san. That's the only name you can call me. I'm no mother of anything." She'd correct. Foster mother, sure, but mother- ha!

"Umm, yes. Dadan-san. We are in the middle of the Calm Belt. There are too many dangerous sea kings out there and no fishes."

"Yeah, those two can eat just about anything. Just catch a sea king, make Ace flash fry it and feed it to Luffy. They can do that without it touching the ground, and the brat won't complain for the next few hours." Dadan suggest. Absurd, yes, but true. She'd seem then do it once, to fish when they where kids when Sabo told them all about the absurd idea of eating raw fresh fish. It wasn't cooked, but the brat could eat that no problem, they were fresh.

Ace just takes Luffy away to go fishing.

"Boss, here's a plate for you. We got you a good portion and we saved it from Luffy." Magra lays down the plate and sets a cup of water down on the seat. The portion was small, but she doesn't complain… she knew who ever runs this place can't possible keep up with Luffy's appetite.

"We're docking somewhere soon, right?" She finds herself asking as she sits down. "Where's Makino?"

"I'm here Dadan-san." She comes out with a cup of tea and a small bottle of sake. "I know you aren't supposed to, and Ace said not to give it to you, but I think you'll need this."

"Thank you Makino!" She smiles, still with that doppy proud smile she rarely ever used around the boys unless they were quietly sleeping and not pissing her off. She takes to eating her breakfast before drinking the sake. Finally, some good alcohol.— This was so much better than her usual cheap drinks, she wonders what this was, but more importantly, supplies. She'll need to re-stock. It's already been two days and Luffy really can't be out at sea that long without keeping it away from him. From the looks of things, Luffy has gone and eaten more than they expected.

"So… who's leading this ship?"

"That would be I, madam." The top hat guy interjects. "I am the Commander of the 5th division, Flower Sword Vista of the Whitebeard Pirates. I am currently acting captain of this vesstle." He introduces himself with a sweeping bow. -Oh great, another top hat wearing brat.

"Where's the closest island from here?" She asks.

"I would have to ask Ace, because he plotted the route and he's the head navigator today." Of course, Ace is navigating. She has no doubt he is competent, but adding Luffy to the mix is just a disaster.

"Magra, Dogra, baby sit Luffy. Call Ace over, tel him it's about the route." She'd ordered. The two scrambled away. The people around the mess hall witnesses the scene. Wondering what she has over those two and why they call her "boss". What family did Ace come from?

"Ma-chan." She calls to her, the nice lady they considered a sister figure. She was nice, for the last few days they've known her, she greets them good morning and does idle chats from time to time; and her smile was so calming and polite; but she was always cooking for Ace's little brother. The one who ate a lot, much more than Ace. "How's their food stock? How much did Luffy eat?"

"He ate quite a lot, and I'd estimate we'll only have 1 more day of supplies to get us thru." Vista blanches. Supplies were that depleted already? How could that be? They just re-stocked 2 days ago, and supposedly enough for 50 men for a week.

Dadan clicks her tongue as she scratches her head. "Really, that brat…" Just as she'd said that Ace enters the mess, curious on what's happening since Vista, Foosa and Haruta were around Dadan and Makino.

"Ace, how close are we to the next island?"

"We're in the Calm Belt Dadan. There's not an island for miles. The next island is 3 days away, but our next stop is 5 days away, on an island under our territory."

"Then how's fishing for dinner? Luffy eaten by a sea king yet?" Because apparently, using Luffy as bait was a family thing.

"Nope." Just as Ace said that, there was a lurch on the ship and Magra and Dogra were at the door "LUFFY!" They both yelled in panic.

"That better be edible. Go hunt your brother down. AND bring back the tail for us ya good for nothing brat!" Dadan screams when Ace was already out.

"Ma-chan, if that catch is big enough, how many days?"

"Still 1 Dadan-san. I was hoping we could catch today's dinner swell."

"Is this true Jonney?" Foosa asks one of the chefs behind the counter.

"At this rate, she's the only one who can estimate the food we have, but I believe she's right." Jonney answers. "We didn't account for Ace's brother eating more than he could."

Dadan drinks her sake but continues to speak her mind, "Cut the rice. One tiny bowl per head. We'll tie Luffy on the mast to make sure he stays still."

"Isn't that child cruelty?" Foosa brings it up. Dadan laughs, loud and sure. She was the only one laughing while Makino had an apologetic smile.

She wipes a stray tear from her eye. Really, these kids don't know what they're dealing with- who they're dealing with. "It's not child cruelty when it's for the good of the kid." Dadan explains "Trust me here. Most of the time, when you're dealing with hyperactive kids who could either get eaten, get stabbed or get mugged, the lesser evil is to tie them up until they calm down." Dadan advices. "Until that island comes into view, we're tying up Luffy if he isn't already exhausted by his hunting." Dadan ends the conversation and proceeds to eat and drink. Slow and surprisingly lady-like, which makes everyone else wonder who the fuck that woman was and how exactly was Ace raised.

Later on, Ace appeared with a sleeping Luffy on his shoulder and the large tail of the sea king on the other. He deposits the tail to the kitchen while politely apologizing for depleting the supply.

"You both stink." Dadan comments. "You kids take a bath. And don't come out till you've counted to a thousand."

"I don't need to count to a thousand, we're too old to count to a thousand, you can't make me." Ace replies as he does take Luffy to the shower room.

"Then make Luffy count to 500. Only scrub when he's counting."

"That's gonna take forever!"

"That's all the education you' brother's ever gonna get from me brat. You can't always be there to count for him. Get it to his head the number of minutes he'll starve if he doesn't stay still and fish for his food."

In a very Ace fashion, he retorts. "Well, there are other ways to get him to learn. Other ways YOU don't know, stupid old hag." Ace leaves.

Dadan sighs when the boys were out. "Those kids, really." She turns to see an audience behind her. Some were tearing-up and frowning. She scratches her head. What were they all sad for? There was nothing odd about that. "Magra, Dogra." She calls, and the two were instantly behind her like lapdogs. "One of you stand near the door for those two. Make sure Luffy counts to 500. And find some rope, enough to tie Luffy to the mast."

"What will you be doing Boss?" The chicken fellow asked.

"Laundry." She replies. Only to be stopped by the smaller one. "I-I can do that for you boss. Why don't you return to the infirmary instead. Rest-up and get better."

The audience in the mess who could hear were curious. Was she sick? What could be wrong with her?

So there she was, back in the infirmary after late breakfast. Back to thinking about the next steps they'll take to hunting for their mountain- then the nurse, Josephine, brings in a den-den mushi "Dadan-san, Commander Marco is on the line."

"Marco? Who's he?" Because she doesn't know anyone named Marco.

"Dadan-san, it's me. I was with you at the square yesterday." The den-den talks, its eyes suddenly had that familiar half-lidded lazy look she could recall on a blonde guy with balding problems at the back of his head, whom oddly looked like the king of pineapples. "Ah! It's you!"

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**I'm SO CLOSE to the chapters I want! I'm so excited for them to meet! XD XD Just a little more! Just a few more! XD I can push thru this until I friggin' see them together. Until they're together, I can't release the shorts I've done about them! But I' so so so excited for those sweet shorts XD I just decided on a really REALLY interesting take of how to present those shorts, and because of that, I am unable to relase them early for your entertainment. ;) **

**Just- here's a hint. Notice that Haruta is on the rescue squad. :) Take a lucky guess on how I'll present my shorts (that of which includes Haruta) and if you get it right, I'll let the lucky guesser read the unedited versions first. XD ENJOY!**

**Thank you, followers and reviewers, for all the loving support. **

**To: the-lurkingAnon-reader - I'll try to get this all the way to the part I want to write about. Thank you for your continued support in reading this fic! :D**

**To: SakuraKoi - I know right! XD Thank you for reviewing your raw emotion. Trust me, it holds a lot of meaning.**

**To: Guest - Oh my Gosh! I woke up one morning to read this review, and I didn't mean to scare you! Really, it was my true honest feeling that I wanted to delete not because of the little support, but because the fic was turning too serious and too long. I only wanted to write about love. I only wanted to write about sweetness and hope and smiles and these two alcohol drinking- family treasuring people that DIDN'T meet in Canon. **

**Thank you also for realizing the extreme difference- I had an internal debate with when I published chapter 4. I actually didn't mean for Dadan to get weak. I view her as a strong woman, but most people would assume she is strong due to her big imposing stature. She looks rough and certainly a bandit boss! -But I noticed if I took away all that imposing strength, the few people she has who loves and cares for her, even if they are all cowards like Magra and Dogra, or someone not as physically stong as Makino, they would stand-up for her, heck, even Ace would stand-up for her if he's forced to choose. The beauty of Dadan's canon character is that Oda gave us a lot to go with from Episodes of Ace. We saw her being a tsundere bandit boss, we saw her soft spot for the kids, her "love" for Ace, crying when they leave, being proud, being sad, scrapbooking, cleaning and just being a mother, and then I thought WHY DON'T WE HAVE A FIELD DAY FOR ACE, WHITEBEARD AND DADAN MEETING EACH OTHER- being civil! And That's what I really wanted- That's all the shorts I wrote about for a time. **

**Now that I really thought about why I was writing this way, the part where I needed to introduce Dadan to the WBPs like how a dad introduces his new girlfriend to his children, about to call them their new mom... did I realize the importance of the chapters I've written so far. I'll try to write with that mindset from now on. **

**Once again, Thank You for all your reviews and follows and reads! Enjoy the next few chapters!**


	12. In Such a Short Time

**Oh my gosh, finally, after 12 chapters! The pairing is want is finally! XD talking for the first time XD! **

**I've been aiming to write this SOOO much (and I'm kinda scared it might be underwhelming for you guys, or it doesn't satisfy your expectations,,, but I just want to write them first, just not knowing each other yet and only knowing basic stuff and getting to know each other! XD XD XD). From here on, I'm writing their convos for pure satisfaction. If you fans want to contribute to Dadan and Whitebeard conversations over the den-den, please review and comment on your wishes. I'll see what I can do! ; D**

**Chapter 13**

"Dadan-san, it's me. I was with you at the square yesterday." The den-den talks, its eyes suddenly had that familiar half-lidded lazy look she could recall on a blonde guy with balding problems at the back of his head, whom oddly looked like the king of pineapples. "Ah! It's you!"

"Yes. I called because Ace proposed you should stay in the first division to learn to use your fruit, yoi." Dadan pales. Wasn't it supposed to be a secret? Why would Ace? Ace would never! -The sting in her heart made her ache, she felt betrayed.

"That brat talked?" It was all she could ask. Ace has reasons, Ace trusts these people…

"I'm his commander and the crew's first mate, ma'am. Rest assured, this is a secure line and no one else will know. Even if they find out, you will be under our protection, yoi."

Why does this sound sooo familiar? She rolls her eyes- that's right. This is like Garp all over again. The whole thing, it's like Garp again. Getting hunted down, getting a VIP pass that seems so unreal, getting black mailed because she took the bait and didn't choose prison. Dadan believes it's all sounding too familiar. 'They want something from you Dadan.' Her mind tells her, 'Don't owe them any favors.'

"I don't want to owe you favors. Drop us off at the next forest. We're leaving." She ends up saying.

"Dadan-san, we respect your wishes, but my captain would like to speak with you. It has something to do with what happened to your home. He wants to hear it from you and see you people in person, as well as thank you for raising Ace."

"We can talk thru this line, and Ace raised himself. There's nothing to thank me for." She huffs. She really doesn't want to remember what happened to Dawn, -to her bandits. "And I don't want to talk about it… not yet." She didn't know when tears started streaming out her eyes and down her cheeks, but Marco had pointed it out first when she realized- "Ah, I wasn't crying…. My eyes were just leaking." She gruffly wiped away her tears with the back of her head. Marco could only smile in his head, Ace takes a lot from her, he thinks.

She hears a laugh from the other line. She pouts. There's nothing funny about what happened at Dawn. There was nothing funny at all.

Then the expression of the snail changed. From the droopy-eyed Marco, to another face she didn't know. "What's so funny ya' punk?" She'd growled at the next speaker, barring teeth and trying to look as feral as she did to intimidate her opponents. The person on the other line only laughed louder at the familiar expression, the one he remembered form a feral teen wearigna yellow shirt and freckles on his face. That was hillarious, the first time, this was just great!

"Gurararara!": The man keeps on laughing. Dadan had had enough. That's just cruel.

"What do you want you ass hole? There something funny about dead people, huh?"

"No! No, it's not that." The laughter stops, this time the man coughs. Loud and phlegmy and Dadan didn't have to be a nurse to know he was sick as hell. There was shuffling t the other side, she could hear Marco barking orders and asking if he needed something, so she waited for them and calmed herself down from her anger. When the coughing died down and she can faintly hear Marco asking if he was alright, only then did he speak again. "So, you must be Bandit Hag, Curly Dadan."

"Who's asking?"

Edward Newgate didn't think he'd have to ever introduce himself again. He's made quite a name for himself already, and isn't it odd this woman doesn't know him? "I am the Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates, Edward Newgate."

"I've never heard of you." Dadan says blandly. She never really heard or remembered the name, just that Ace decided to join his crew and he was the captain. Before that, she hardly knew who the guy was. "-But thank you for taking care of Ace, and letting us hitch a ride." She'd added, just not to seem rude.

"Gurarara, Anything for my sons." He'd end up saying, flinching at the last slip. This woman is technically Ace's mother, he's hoping she doesn't get offended.

Dadan feels a twinge in her heart when this guy called Ace his son, but it passes and goes.

She admits she wasn't the best mother figure, but she hoped she was at least a decent father figure… but that ended up screwing the kid over and now look at him, calling another real man who's only been with him for the last year his father. This guy must have been a really good father figure for Ace to acknowledge him as one. He must a father figure more deserving than she could ever be...

"Yeah. Thanks for that. Kid is better off with ya than with me. Ace wasn't born to be a bandit. He's a good bandit, but he's terrible at it too." She'd find herself explaining. "Better off with ya in a boat than trapped in a mountain."

"He was born to be a pirate I would say." Newgate adds, "I guess he isn't the most trusting brat, ya know something about that?"

Dadan smiles at it. "Let me guess, he tried to murder ya?" Actually, she heard about it. Portgas D. Ace taking on Whitbeard. Kinda hard not to hear.

"More or less, but he couldn't kill me. I didn't even try hard."

"Good for ya. Brat tried to kill me n' my bandits many times when he was just a baby. Heck, the brat even tried to kill his brothers before he called them his brothers. Trust me on this, he likes you when he tries to kill you." She hears laughter from the other side.

"That is the understatement of the year. He's challenged every member of my crew with killing intent. Ended up liking every single one of them. Gurararara!" Newgate laughs. Dadan laughs as well, but she hides her giggles behind her hand. Ah, the many ways a kid like Ace can kill a man. She remembers sending bandits after him only for them to get attacked by wolves or some other animal, falling into ravines and rivers, gets stung by bees, bitten by snakes, getting broken bones and the weaker bandits actually did die. She recalls a time she sent a newbie after Ace and later found out the newbie was a spy from Higuma's gang. Yeah, sending bandits after Ace had it's good points too.

"It's good to hear you're joining us! We'd have a lot to talk about Dadan."

"But we can't stay here." Dadan immediately corrects. "Ace has his own adventures and we have ours. I'm aiming to find an island where we can stay and build our base again. Any island with a forest and a mountain could be good." She explains. Newgate raises his brow. "You aren't going to learn pharmacy from the first division?" Because that's what he's been told.

"I don't think I can…" She pauses, waiting if he'll talk her into joining. He doesn't, he keeps silent and waiting for her to explain. "I'm old." She starts; because she is growing old, too old for all this change. "I just want to go back to my home, and the sea isn't it… also, Ace… We're weighing him down. He gets responsible when we expect him to take care of Luffy. This isn't how we want him to be."

"I understand." He says, "-but…" Newgate says. Dadan expected it because there is always a condition. Dadan worries what the condition will be, because the last condition she took made her an unwilling foster mother. "I want you to pick from the islands under our protection. Better there than any other place where other pirates can attack." Dadan waits for more conditions. Yet nothing comes. Is that all?

"Th-that's it? What's the catch? How much are ya extorting?"

"Were you expecting more conditions?"

"Hell no!"

"Then that's it." Newgate huffs, seemingly ending the discussion.

"You aren't gonna ask for more conditions after?" Dadan prods. At the other side of the line, the captain keeps quiet. The kind of quiet that reminds Dadan of a thinking quiet. 'Shit, shouldn't have asked.'

"How about you folks come to the main ship first, then we'll discuss all this. Meanwhile, I'll have Ace give me his options for a mountain for you."

Dadan was skeptical. Is it this easy? In a safe island, under Ace's captain's protection? She didn't think it would be that easy… She recalled having turf wars back at Dawn. Disputes which lasted for years until the other kills the other or captures the boss. She remembers blood, and deceit and spies and a whole bunch of other methods she used to get the other bandits to surrender.

"You better not be pulling my leg Newgate. I'm old as hell and I'd rather die than deal with another Garp."

Newgate raises a brow. "That sounds like an interesting story.- We are talking about the same Garp, are we?"

"Wears a white coat or a stupid Hawaiian shirt. Has a scar around his eye. Throws cannon balls with his hands."

"So we are talking about the same Garp." Newgate grins, of course, it all makes sence now, how Roger's son ended up in the hands of bandits, obviously clueless of the world if they don't know his name. "I'll be guessing he handed Ace over to you one day without warning."

"Ha! That's one way of putting it! The old dog once decided to spare me from my crimes; then one day threatened me with imprisonment if I don't take care of a fuckin' baby. Did the guy think I was a cow that can feed that thing?"

"I'm guessing it was hard to satiate Ace when he was a baby." Newgate could just imagine it. This Dadan person floundering around on how to take care of a baby Ace.

"Yeah, he was a monster when he was a baby. Got him when he was 2 months old, at least that's what Garp said. Then he goes crawling around at 5 months. Heck, I didn't even know I had to actively massage and lift him and everything. He just flipped over by himself and friggin' crawled. We didn't even read a parenting book until after that, and let me tell you how shitty those books were."

"Oh really now?" Well, he was curious. How inaccurate can parenting books be? "Can you give me an example."

"There are tons. Like the part where you feed the baby mushed-up berries and bananas. So we did that with Ace the moment he arrived because there was no milk up from where we're from, and we had to steal a goat to feed him." Newgate was amused. So they stole a goat to feed a baby, how nice. Also, shouldn't they be breastfeeding a 4-month-old.

"Breastfeeding ain't that simple. A woman only makes milk when she becomes a mother, and that's only for a short amount a time. Most of the time, cleavage is just stored-up fat with no milk." Dadan explained. Did he ask that out loud?

"Very informative. I had no idea." He'd blushed.

"That's what the book said, but what do I know." She shrugs. Newgate frowns at that. This woman may be too much like Ace, not to see her worth, especially in difficult times as she's going thru.

"Dadan, you have the experience, that's a whole other set of qualifications. In my book, you know a lot." Newgate finds himself saying, his honest personal opinion. Dadan was speechless from the other side of the line. There was silence on both ends. Dadan flattered and Newgate expectant and a little nervous after he'd realized he said that to her.

"Pops, it's time for your dinner, yoi." Marco comes into the room. "You're still talking to Dadan-san?"

"Ah, yeah. We've been talking a while. I better get out of your hair before I take more of your time." Dadan says as she finalizes the talk. "Like we've discussed. We'll be there to meet you, then we'll be off to search for the mountain you promised."

"Right. So it shall be… And Dadan-san…."

"Yes?"

"If something is bothering you, don't hesitate to call me. Everyone there knows my line."

"Thanks… I'll call when something happens." She ends the call. The "ka-chak" and the sleeping den-den an indication that the line was really cut.

"Well Pops, that took longer than I expected, yoi." Marco mentally estimates, they've been talking for 15 minutes. He comes-up beside Whitebeard and takes the Den-den Mushi from his hands. "Oh, you know us old people, just talking about our lives so far." He evades. "So- any word on Vista about what's really happening?"

"Yes. It seems like the rescue team didn't account for Ace's brother's appetite. So the crew would be living on sea king and small servings of rice for the time being. Ace had already requested a change in route and proposed an island. They'll be stopping by for a day before returning to Moby, yoi"

"That is indeed concerning."

"Vista said it was Dadan-san who asked about it. She's competent at least, just like a certain fire starter. Just that her methods are a little questionable." At that, Whitebeard's eyes narrowed.

"What are her methods that you're talking about?"

"Well, Haruta mentioned fishing using the little brother as bait, and tying the little brother on the mast so he wouldn't move around, yoi."

Whitebeard questioned, holding off on his assumptions. "Isn't that cruel to the kid?"

"That's just it, apparently Ace also uses the younger as bait, and tying him to the mast is safer than letting him bounce around in the ship, yoi. The little brother is made up of rubber, he ate a devil fruit called the Gomu-gomu no Mi, and last I checked, Ace had already gotten him fished out of the ocean 5 times for the last 3 hours I was there." Marco tells. "He's a hand full, and god knows how that brat survived with the rest of those bandits, yoi."

Whitebeard finds himself smiling at the thought of a hyperactive young boy with a bandit boss and a brother like Ace. It sounds like such an interesting family… he can't wait to meet them already.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**THEY TALKED IN THE DEN-DEN! GGGAAAAAHHHHHH! I'M SO FRIGGIN' SATIATED! FINALLY! This is what I was aiming for. They talked! Do you see where I was coming from? These simple talks, the old-people talks about what had happened in their lives. So friggin' satisfying! How more exciting would this be if they had sake and they were talking to each other? Gah! It's moments like these I wanted to write about. T^ T Old people discuss real wolrd things from experience. They friggin ask a lot of questions too. Just pointing this out to anyone who'd want to contribute to the old people talks. XD**


	13. Can I Make You Change Your Mind

**Chapter 14**

The days pass on in relative peace. Well, as peaceful as a ship with Luffy can get.

Somewhere along the line, Luffy got to know Haruta who was a cheeky little prankster, and the two made good friends. It was also Haruta who was keeping the boy occupied with many different stories and activities so the others who usually take care of him were doing something else soundly due. They would be toking for supplies in 4 hours, and that's just enough time for some cleaning.

While Luffy was pre-occupied, Ace was finally able to do his work and properly map out a route and somehow, begin compiling a list of good mountains for Dadan and the others. Then there was Mogra and Dogra who were doing the laundry who forgone doing it the previous day due to other Luffy induced antics, and the rest of the crew also got roped into doing their laundry because it was a perfect day for it…

"Why are we doing the laundry?" Samuel (a member of the 1st division) asked Curiel who was beside him, also doing the laundry. "I have no idea." Because they were used to wearing their clothes for days at a time. Why they were doing laundry now, they had no idea.

"Take a break boys, I brought some cool lemon water." Makino serves out a tray for the 8 people out on the deck. The rest of the crew seems content and placated by her presence alone. Suddenly, doing laundry was the best part of the day.

Makino glimpses Dadan with Dogra. "I can do this boss, you just go back to sitting down there. You can supervise." Dogra yanks the sheets she was washing from her hands. She'd been insisting on washing her sheets and clothes since this morning, and since the Calm Belt was so calm, they decided today was a good enough day as any to do it. While Magra and Dogra were keeping Dadan from doing the chores, the others joined in doing their laundry as well after watching the three of them argue and do the laundry at the same time.

"Why are you doing this?! I'm no invalid!" She complains.

"You aren't boss! We swear, we're just taking the bigger pieces so you can do the smaller ones."

"And what's wrong with me washing the sheets?"

"Nothing! We-we're just making the work easier for you! We swear!"

"I'm not asking you to do shit. I'm-"

"Dadan, it's no big deal. Let Mogra and Dogra do that stuff. You can just sit down and read this book about the history of medicine." Ace comes in to steer Dadan away and read the book he so conveniently found in the library (and definitely didn't ask the doctors to lend him.)

"I don't want to read shit."

"You don't have to read out loud. Just- look… Just please read the book on that chair Dadan." Ace asks, exhausted and just hoping she gets at least a bit interested. Dadan looks back at Dogra and Magra.

"We can do this boss. You just go ahead and rest."

When she willingly put down the sheets, she had to include another order. "Wash the brats and Makino's sheets too, and you better not slack on it."

"Yes Boss!" The two responds.

Ace steers Dadan to a chair in the shade, where she can comfortably read the medical book he brought for her. "Here you go, just call when you need something. And you better read that book. By the time dinner rolls over, you just might have a grasp of what your devil fruit really is." Ace huffs, because that's always been his objective, to make Dadan learn her fruit.

"Shut up brat. I'm no smart-ass genius, I have my own pace." She complains, but continues to read anyway. After a few lines, she suddenly remembered something, "Huh, where are my glasses?"

"Oh no! I think your reading glasses sank with the ship!" Magra recalls. In their haste, he completely forgot to get everything in Dadan's side tape drawer.

"It's fine." Dadan looks back at the book, "It seems I don't need it anymore." She smiles as she straightens up the book, and reads.

Magra, Dogra and Ace stare as she reads. Somehow amazed at her fruit, at the same time weirded-out. Her fruit was so baffling. The Pharma-pharma made her that thin and physically weaker than she once was but ultimately made all her organs better. Her eyes, her hearing, her smell and the doctors and nurses say her heart and lungs are fine. A baffling fruit it was indeed.

"Oi, what are you idiots staring at?" She'd said drawly as she continues to read. This prompted the men to return to their chores, washing and hanging with too much vigor. Ace leaves, back to navigation to deal with more work.

The by-standers of the scene were skeptical, as usual. What exactly happened that Ace and the two men were treating her like a fragile doll? She was ready to work and to do some motherly chores, some were even reminded of their own mothers back at home, but then Ace came to distract her with a book. She asks for her glasses but says she doesn't need them. How could that happen?

As the rest of them wondered, Luffy was off with Haruta, staring off to the sea and looking at the island far beyond their reach.

Whitebeard looks at the sky, his sons on the deck and Marco on the crows nest, perching there as a Phoenix. Whitebeard would have thought that Marco was asleep, but he was always quick to rouse when something happens. The peace was beautiful, calming even. It was perfect. It almost makes him miss Thatch and Haruta's antics. Thatch was on a supply run and Haruta was all the way with the rescue squad. He breathes, takes in the sea air, and exhales.

The peace and quiet was so ideal, his mind couldn't help but wonder. He'd had such an interesting conversation last night with Ace's- foster mother. She'd had such awful luck crossing with Garp the Fist, it actually makes him wonder how she even come to know him. What was the story behind it? I'm sure she knows Ace's best kept secret, else Ace would be dead by now if that woman didn't do anything special to keep him hidden or safe.

She was a bandit boss, the updates from Haruta about the East Blue were reported just last night, and it seems Ace's family got their own bounties despite them having no known record in the past… Something tells him Garp had something to do with their missing records. Haruta hadn't the time to dig deep on any of them when they were still in East Blue, and the webs of information Haruta has under him were mostly about the Grand Line; and only a few news about the other Blues reach their webs.

However, Haruta had reported a few local legends in the Goa Kingdom which may or may not be about them. The first legend were about the 3 demon brothers who lived in the woods and killed men who encountered and tries to steal from them. Some say they were gremlins, imaginary things that only attack the blackest of hearts with the worst intentions. Some say they were three boys without parents who were raised by wolves in the forest. They scavenge the dump just beside the kingdom, and sometimes they follow the evil men inside the walls to take back the skin of their dead animal friends. There seems to be a similarity to Ace and Luffy, so Haruta believes there was a third child they didn't know about, but it seems the legend was spread by some bandits from the forest.

Whitebeard thinks that's one way to hide an existence, by calling them imaginary. He thinks Dadan has a role to play with the deceit.

There was also a story about a family who used to live in the land where the Goa Kingdom now resides. They called the clan The Red Witches. They say the clan had green skin and hair as red as blood. The legends said they used to live in a cottage in the mountain where the royals of Goa now resided. It was a popular legend, but the story was purely written to make it seem like the Tenryubito were the heroes.

The tale was about a knight, a relative of the Tenryubito, that came down to the earth to vanquish the family of evil witches. The knight was successful in burning those witches down except for the last little witch who grew up and terrorized the land. She cursed them with plagues, and crimes and poor harvest. The knight who became the first King of Goa, was furious and prayed for a savior to relieve them of the Red Witch.

The savior came in the form of an angel, sent by the Tenryubito who chased away the witch and eventually killed her. The mountain beside the Goa Kingdom was said to be her resting place. Her blood became the cause of the dangerously wild and untamable animals surrounding it, surrounding the grave of the evil red witch. They say the animals there protects her, and she spawns the evil gremlins and creatures who fester in the hearts of the unjust and evil from the underworld.

The legend was obviously about a certain bandit boss. Whitebeard was impressed; that's all it took for her to be left alone.

Maybe he should call her up again just to see how she's doing.

"Pops!" Izo approaches with papers in his hands. Must be something serious then. "It's about the territory in the Calm Belt Ace requested to dock at."

* * *

As the island approaches, the trails of smoke rising into the horizon gets thicker and thicker. The ominous feeling returns to the survivors of the buster call.

It was too soon to see it. Luffy was frozen on the deck, his expression was not that of immediate fear, but his usual smile was gone and he was so transfixed by the fire. Magra and Dogra were already hiding behind Dadan's seat, also staring at the flames and the smoke rising to the sky. Makino had grabbed Luffy and was pulling him with her back in the cabin, but Dadan, she just stared from her seat on the deck.

You'd think seeing things on fire, in ruin, would be something you'll grow used to when everything you try to build gets destroyed… but the feelings were the same. She'd been inside a fire multiple times before. She felt different things over time, but there were always those that remained, those feelings and emotions she associates with fire.

The first time was when she was a child. She lost a lot but she got out alive. The first emotion that struck her was fear, a fear that was stuck just at her throat, between her neck and jaw. She was a child then, and suddenly her world was engulfed in flames of red. She screamed, because that's where the fear was, and she wanted the fear gone.

She screamed until her voice was raw, coughing from the smoke that stung her eyes and made her cry; but the fear remained, lodged just at the back of her throat, just at her jaw, so very close to her neck, she wanted to wring it right out. Wring it out with her hands until all the fear is gone, but she knew that wouldn't do anything. So she screamed and she ran until she found herself finally outside of the fire, yet she still ran, the adrenaline and fear still making her run.

She lost everything that day… the day it all burned down. The day she looked back and cried and realized her feeling was no longer of fear, but bitter sadness.

Then there was anger; anger that burned as treacherously as the fire right at the pit of her stomach. It was stupid, how she knew where it started… That anger didn't last long tho, it didn't stay alone. There was the sadness too from her throat, and they mixed together to form frustration's throbbing in the front of her head as she watched the flames devour her life. The mixture of all her emotions equated to one action, crying.

She wailed. All of those emotions, the feelings in her neck, her stomach, her chest and her head… she cried. That was when she was but a child…

The second fire was the one at Grey Terminal, where she worried Ace and Luffy would still be inside. This time, the fear was there as well, but there was also a selfless kind of worry that came from her heart.

It was even more stupid, she thinks. The same fear she used to run away from the fire when she was a child, would be the same fear she used to run into a fire to find her brats. She would have laughed at the irony if she weren't so worried. But there was no relief, like the first time.

She found Ace, but the trouble wasn't over yet. The feelings mixed inside her again. Her throat, the pit of her stomach, her heart, her head, everything was working expendably fast, sometime later she'd call herself emotional, but that wasn't what she thought of then when Bluejam was about to kill her kids. She felt a strike of possessiveness at her heart, so close to her lungs, she found it hard to breathe. She attacks, and she has Ace behind her and Luffy was taken by Magra, hopefully away from this dump… and Ace, she felt so fuckin' proud.

A sense of pride at her chest, and a weight that followed at her shoulders that felt like a reassuring hand that pats her back to tell her of a job well done, but it might as well have been exhaustion, now that she thinks about it. The feeling of placing boulders under her skin, just above her shoulders, an impossible spot to reach. Now that- she knew the feeling.

Then the one at Dawn, too soon, too soon… that was the worst. Everything she felt from the previous fires, everything multiplied by 5 because she wasn't alone, she wasn't the third wheel either.

She was not a good person, but there were people who were kinder than her, more innocent than her who were with her, who looked up to her to keep them safe. This time, she was their leader, and they needed her to get out of the fire. Their lives were in her hands… Everything she felt multiplied by 5. Five lives, including her own, in her hands.

* * *

"Dadan-san, you should get back to the infirmary. We'll take care of this. We'll dock on another island." Vista explains.

"No! There are people there. They might need help. Why don't we help them?" Dadan screams.

"Dadan-san, I understand you'd want to help, but we have orders, and you people had experienced so much already."

"I don't care! We're no pansy! We're bandits! We were born for danger." She screams, causing a scene.

"Dadan!" This time it was Ace who glares at her. She knew that glare, the one that said leave me alone. Ace had his arms crossed, stance wide and strong, imposing, commanding, and she used to stand the same way towards him too. They still do. They'd stand the same way and look at each other in the eyes, making their statements and staring each other down. She's still taller than him, but he was wider and no longer as small as she remembers. He was no longer the small brat she stared up imposingly. And just like they always do, she sighs, breaks the glaring contest and waves her hand. "Fine whatever, I don't care. Do what you want." Like she always does. She pretends she doesn't care.

She walks away to the infirmary. The two bandits right behind her.

This was his adventure, not hers. She reminds herself.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**Sorry, I'm running late. Believe me, I've been busy as heck, and no, I'm not finished. I'd estimate this to run for another 20 chapters because I write like a sentimental piece of pie. But now, I'll answer some reviews. :D**

**mjscev - This isn't over yet! I'm still writing. I won't stop until Whitebeard meets Dadan. And I WANT to see them together, at least once!**

**chibi-no-baka - I know right! Thank you for reviewing,,, but I actually gave this a thought. She is not the best, but she isn't the worst either. So If I have to go and gift her a mother's day T-shirt I would give her one with the lines: NOT THE WORST MOM; with the NOT written in red marker and THE WORST MOM written in ugly bold green on a pink shirt. :D**

**SakuraKoi - Thank you! I'm just glad you are continuously reading my work! XD Stay tuned for more! :D**

**All my other readers, Enjoy! And Thank you for reading, fave-ing, following and reviewing! XD XD XD**


	14. With My Heart on My Sleeves

**I couldn't help it. I just want them talking more. OK. :D**

* * *

**Chapter 15**

"Good day Dadan, I heard what happened- about the island." Newgate finds himself talking to her again. Izo had reported that there was a pirate raid on the island, just hours before the rescue team was to dock. Vista had informed them of what had happened. The argument about Ace staring Dadan down and telling her not to argue with Vista about helping the citizens and forgoing the orders.

"It's nothing. I don't want to talk about it." She huffs. "Why are ya calling me again anyway Newgate?"

"I was just- I thought you'd want someone to talk with." He finds himself thinking twice, he didn't want to seem privy to their family matters, but if he could help…

"As I said. It's nothing, and this was Ace's adventure. We're not supposed to be involved." Ah, so that's why… But she hasn't heard the news yet?

"Yeah, about that. Haruta reported that Ace took his Striker and sailed to the island on his own, to stop the pirate raid."

"He what!" Dadan screams as she leaves the den-den and runs for the deck.

She finds the boat anchored relatively close to the island, but a safer distance away. A group of people on the deck stares at the island with the dark clouds on the horizon. The island where they spotted the burning village was off in the distance, far enough to steer clear but close enough to see the action.

"Where's Ace?" She asks Kingdew who was closest to her at the back of the crowd. The tall man points to the island.

"That brat!" She yells. She was furious, yes, but she was also proud, happy even. No one deserves to suddenly lose everything like that, like what had happened to her. "So, is there any way to find out if Ace needs back-up or…"

"He just took off on his own." Vista answers. "At this rate, there's no one to follow him."

"Where's Luffy? Is he with Ace?"

"Nah, I'm here." There Luffy sits, tied to the mast by his own rubbery limbs, beside him were Magra and Dogra. As Luffy struggles to untie his own limbs, cursing Ace for tying him tight, Dogra looks over the island with a spyglass. "Ace is fighting the captain now, he's burned their ship down!" Dogra's live commentary. "I can't see anything now, but Ace burned the ship. It's sinking fast."

"Did Ace get out of the ship?" Dadan asks, "And how is the fire in the village? Is it contained?"

"The village looks fine, well- it's no longer burning at least. Ace must have taken out the fire, but the ship is sinking fast, and I can't find Ace. The fire's too strong… What do we do Boss?"

Dadan was already untying Luffy from the mast and tying the other part to a rail. "Here's the plan, as stupid as this sounds. Magra, we're catapulting you closer to the island."

"M-me?!" Magra cowers. "How do I get back."

"Think of something, swim back if you have to." ("Dadan-san, may I remind you of sea kings in the ocean?" Vista remains unheard.) "Until then, you're in charge of Ace. Now, get on this slingshot so I can shoot you at the burning boat." ("That sounded wrong.- suicidal and wrong.")

"Eh!" Magra tries to run but was blocked by Dogra. "Do you really want to cross me?" His threat. No, Magra doesn't want to cross anyone… Magra screams as Dogra practically leaps on him and wrestles him into the improvised Luffy slingshot. There was screaming, protests and screeching of orders. That was, until Luffy had had enough.

"Dadan, this is Ace's adventure. You don't have to send anyone after him. He can take care of himself." Luffy interjects. He rolls away from Dadan and the two bandits. He tugs and unties the limbs Dadan tied to the mainmast and the railing. He sits down near the mast, the very spot Ace had tied him to, pulls down his hat and leans back, hands behind his head. Only the lower part of his face was visible, and everyone could clearly see the whites of his teeth.

Dadan stops to observe Luffy. The brat was confident Ace would be fine. Well, she never knew… She'd just learned to keep someone close to look after them, to report to her if they need her help. More than half the time, Ace didn't need her, no longer needs her anymore. In fact, he was so competent, Dadan wonders why she still sends bandits to spy on Ace… So she accepts the facts. This was Ace's adventure. They weren't needed.

"Fine. I'm going back to the infirmary, I left their captain on the den-den without saying shit."

"Ok, see you later Dadan!" Luffy waves from the mast.

It took a while for the spectators to actually understand what she said. "Dadan-san, you were taking with Oyaji?" Kingdew asks. Dadan had already slammed the door before he could get an answer.

* * *

"Oi, Newgate, you still with me?"

"Yes, yes I'm still here." He responds after quite some time. "So… what's happened with Ace?"

"Beat up the captain, saved the island and whatever. He left on his own so that's something you might be mad about."

"Gurararara! That, that I would tell him off for disobeying orders… but, I'm proud of him." Newgate admits with a beaming smile on the snail was so genuine, Dadan couldn't help but smile too.

"Yeah, he did something right. I wouldn't have done the same, but I'm glad Ace can do that shit on his own. It's the only good part about raising a monster like Ace. When I read about his adventures from the paper, the things he does around the world, I can't help but be proud too." Dadan finds herself smiling as she admits it, then laments on the things she would have done. "A while ago, I almost catapulted one of my men over to spy on Ace. The more I think about it, the stupider I feel."

"Why is that?" Newgate asks with concern, he's always so concerned. Maybe that's why he's such a good father. Why all those people happily call him Oyaji.

"I just told you this was Ace's adventures, we weren't supposed to be here… I got back to my old habits of sending people after him to watch over him and report back if something does happen. He isn't a kid anymore, I know that, -but I just keep on forgetting." Dadan finds herself ranting.

"I know he isn't a kid anymore. He's his own man now. He'd always been independent, ever since he was 10 and couldn't stand the house. I dunno. Maybe he's choking every time I'm here. Maybe I'm choking him? Shit, I don't know."

"Dadan, calm down. Sit down, the line's getting choppy form all your moving."

Only then did she realize she was pacing. "Huh, sorry about that…." She does sit back down, and lifts her feet up on the bed, for good measure, crossing them over each other and reclining to a more comfortable position.

"I'm worried, always been, always will be." She breathes. "What if, it was your first kid that you're dealing with, and he doesn't tell you what he's doing and he just runs off on his own. He'd most likely be beating up men four times his size and destroying pirate crews five times stronger than him. How will you cope with that? What will you do Newgate?"

"I don't think Marco's the type to run off on his own," Ah, so that Marco brat was his first crewmate, no wonder he's the first mate. "-but it isn't the first time he's been sent out on his own missions, all by himself. Commanders can do that. He's destroyed many ships and pirate crews in the past too. I didn't really tell them I was worried for them, but that's part of being a parent you know." Newgate thinks and thinks again. Ace was different from Marco. Marco was stronger than Ace, but Ace was more creative and had more will in his finger than Marco has in a talon. Ace has the potential to be Pirate King but lacks ambition.

"Dadan, they call me Oyaji, but I'm also their captain. I'm both worried and responsible for their lives. You, you're a real parent who has to see their kid go off on their own." Newgate tries to form the idea in his head. He knows the feeling, of his sons, going off on their missions, with no security that they'd all return, safe and sound. All he could do was prepare them, arrange their team, teach them to fight and help them grow stronger, not for themselves, but for their team, for the crew. For the family. But is that really enough?

"In my crew, I know they'll try to come back. They'll fight tooth and nail to come back home to this family. We could only prepare them for the worst, and teach them all they need to know to survive, but that doesn't make us worry any less does it?"

"No. It doesn't. Those reckless brats, going off and making all of us worry, after all the pain staking pain they put us through." Dadan finds herself complaining, Newgate finds himself amused at her complaints because in the short time they've been talking, he understood she was someone who cares more than she shows. It's adorable.

"I'm not adorable, geeze. Don't say that. I'm offended that you'd call me that! It's like calling an ape cute. Is that what you're doing?" -Oh did he say that out loud?

"Yeah, ya did. You're still saying shit out loud." Oh.

"I didn't mean to offend you Dadan, I was just telling the truth. You care more than you let on."

"No, I don't." She pouts, she only realizes she's pouting when she sees the snail smile wider, which means Newgate was smiling wider. "What are you thinking Newgate. This better not be about me."

"Haha, just thought about how Ace must have grown up with you around. Must be the reason he's not keen on orders."

"What ya on about? Let me tell ya, I expect my brat to lead and be independent and shit, not to follow orders. -mostly because I couldn't teach him that."

"Gurararara, that is true in many ways," Newgate recalls the first time Ace took to following second division orders. Never had the second division ever been amazed by how much Portgas D. Ace had finished in one day. From then on, Marco KNEW, the second division was in good hands.

He was given an assignment for any newbie to finish in 3 days. The second division was to help him through it, and Ace accepted to do it on his own with a little help. The second division usually uses this method as the newbie's training. To let them understand that a big ship like Moby Dick is not going to follow the schedule, and help them accept that plans aren't always met in reality, especially with something as ever-changing as the sea and the weather in the Grand Line in the New World.

The assignment was to map out the course of the ship for the next 5 months. Ace had been on board enough to know how much the provisions would be and had read enough books (and records- although Marco once questioned how did Ace get his hands on the logs on multiple occasions before he officially joined) to know about the islands under their protection and the other ships they'd have to rendezvous, as well as the other divisions in those different ships. He'd mapped out 5 months of the ship's course, as well as Moby 2,3,4 and 5's and the islands they'll be docking at with other allied captains in 3 days. Added to that, an additional time table where they'll be with expected storms he'd observed from previous sea charts and possible sources of the low-pressure areas. The boy's format was accurate, and the second division widely uses it now to tell if something is wrong when something is out of schedule.

"-and because Ace made the time table system, we found out that a ship we were allied with was in a war with another pirate crew when we didn't hear from them or meet them at the rendezvous point. Brat's been able to track down the ships and predict weather patterns when he's asked out of memory."

"Told ya. I raised him to be responsible. He's reckless, sure, but that's something you give a chance to get to know him. He'd be boring if he did everything right, right?"

Before Newgate could answer, there was a knock on the door.

"Pops, Vista just reported. They'll be docking at the island Ace liberated. The village wants to be under Whitebeard's protection." Marco reports as he lets himself in.

"I'll talk to you later. You sound busy." Dadan puts the phone down before he can say anymore. Saying goodbyes always takes longer unless someone puts down the line.

On the other side of the line, Edward Newgate pouts at the quick goodbye. He was enjoying their talks too… He'd wanted to invite them to sail to an island in the South Blue where there are spring islands with a beautiful view, even invite her over for some good sake in that island.

"Pops, Vista's waiting on the line. What do I tell them?"

"Ah, very good. Accept them. Tell them another crew will come with supplies for them. Arrange for 13th Division to help those folks out and train the villagers to fight. Get two members from the 12th and 16th to do information and background checking on the island." Whitebeard gives his orders. Marco nods to show he understands.

"Pops, you seem cheerier lately. Something good happened to you recently?" Marco raises a brow. Spots the Den-den mushi at his bedside table but says nothing of it.

"Oh nothing much, just made a new friend." He'd say, Marco's shoulders tense, like he always does when he learns something new he needs to analyze. "That's… good. Be careful with your friends Oyaji. You don't know who they really are or what they want from you until you get to know them." Because Marco had always been cautious for him. Maybe that's why he'd been able to live so carefree for the rest of his life.

"I will son. I'm careful, don't worry about me."

"That's what I worry about Oyaji…" and the conversation is forgotten for the rest of the day.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**I'm getting busy. I want to write more, but I have a deadline. I'm trying to finish a lot of things all at the same time. So the best I can do is one chapter a week. : Here's to inktober guys! XD**

**SakuraKoi -Hi! Thanks for reviewing!  
**

**.3- Here's another! I seriously want them to meet already, but I'm having less tiem for writing.**

**BlackGryphon101 - Hi there! On the Ace Lives fic. I'm familiar with the fic, but I don't think I reached that chapter. :) I'd read it someday. But I could see where Ace would fall asleep every time they'd have a family talk after dinner. XD Well, Enjoy reading! Have a nice day!**


	15. With the Honest Truth

**Chapter 16**

Dadan liked the sea. There wasn't really a reason why she'd hate it, mostly because she'd never had an experience that was terribly bad to associate to the sea.

She liked to eat fish with fresh mountain fruits and likes the breeze when it isn't so windy. She likes the color of the sea, and how it's the same as the sky, and they make the world seem bigger and more endless. It gives her thoughts more space to wander above her head, and wonder about the world.

She liked the calm seas the most because it reflects the sky like a mirror, and she feels as though she's sailing through the starry skies when the night is particularly clear and chilly and perfect.

She loved the mountains when it frames the sea from where she stands away from the cliff Ace likes. She swears, the view of almost reaching the end of the dense forest was the best view she'd ever seen, because it's where the seas gleam with the light, and it's the first sight that always holds more wonder than seeing the whole picture.

She likes the calm seas…

Yet the moment they cross the Calm Belt and entered the Grand Line, the whole travel had been harsh, the type of harshness she never expected. The difficulty made her appreciate traveling with a bunch of other more experienced sailors.

Every hour was a different story. One minute it was sunny, then suddenly there was a storm. Then suddenly, a hurricane passes by and suddenly it was back to a clear sunny day. That's what had been happening for the last 3 hours they've sailed in the Grand Line, more specifically, New World.

"I feel so sick." Dogra complains as he hugs a bucket. Dogra had always been sensitive to weather changes and the motion of the waves which rocked the boat. It was no surprise that Dogra finds himself beside Dadan's bed in the infirmary the moment the storm rocked the ship.

"There, there, it'll get better." The nurse's comforting words. She pats the bandit's head before checking-up on everything else he might need. Such as a bottle of water and some motion sickness medicine. "Would you like to sleep it out instead? I have some sleeping pills in the cabinet. I know I had some valerian root pills there somewhere."

"Valerian root? What's that?" Magra finds himself asking. "I only know a flower called Valarian."

"Ah, Valerian is a flower from East and South Blue, but the roots were found to contain chemicals that can help people relax and sleep. The people in the past used to take it as tea, but pharmacists and the apothecary were able to make these into pills and tablets."

"Huh, so flower roots can do that too?"

"Yes, I suppose so… I'm not a pharmacist, but I do understand the basics, at least where the medicine came from." The nurse explained… Suddenly, Dadan wishes she remembers her name. She isn't Josephine. No, that nurse was left on the island Ace saved. She had with her another nurse, the older one with light yellow hair and lips as red as blood.

"You see Dadan-san, medicine starts from identifying the raw materials, finding out what they can do, writing down the effects on people- how to process them and how much to take and pass the information around." The nurse explains. "Ah, I heard from Josie you were to become a temporary intern for the first division." She changes the topic when she realizes Dadan couldn't grasp it at all by the vacant look on her face.

"Uh… I decided not to."

"Really?" Magra asks with a frown, he sits in vigil from the other side of her bed, a little disappointed that she doesn't want to try. He hoped she would try at least. Try before giving up.

"Don't look at me like that Magra. I actually tried to read this damn book all about medicine." She points to a book on her lap. She'd been reading that since Ace gave it to her a few days ago. She should be somewhere in the middle of the book by now, but by the place of the bookmark, she was barely 5 pages in from the table of contents.

"That book must have been from Dr. Linman. He's a very renowned doctor in chemistry, for more than his achievements…"

So he's a nut job then. "That book may be too advanced for you Dadan-san." The nurse comments while preparing the medicine for Dogra. "May I see that?"

Dadan shows it to her, she scans through the pages and places it back down. "Too advanced for a beginner." Her conclusion, as well as a creative recommendation. "Quit reading that before you get the wrong idea about medicine."

"What idea? That it's there to make me think I'm an idiot?" Dadan snarks, defeated by everything written in the book.

"No. The wrong idea you might get- that idiots can't learn medicine." The nurse responds. "Believe me, anyone can learn the basics. Basic first aid, basic medicine such as home remedies, basic bandaging. All of those are basic medicine."

"Yeah? Well, I guess I'm a real idiot. I didn't even learn that shit. I just do what I do to patch things up." -And what a terrible job I've done over the years.

"I've been meaning to ask you- about Ace's dislocated elbow." -A perfect example of the shit I do.

"It's our fault," Magra responds from the other side of her bed. "If we'd watched over Ace properly, he wouldn't have broken it."

"No." Dadan sighs, "It's my fault. If we took Ace to a doctor sooner, he wouldn't have suffered like that. It was my choices that led to that."

"Actually, I asked Ace about it. He says it's his fault for climbing a tree, picking fights and not telling anybody about it. You raised him to be quite an independent kid, Dadan-san." The nurse comments, "I'm a mother as well, I respect that." Dadan only looks at her, dumbfounded.

"You? You look young. How old is your kid now?" She finds herself asking.

"Ah, she'd be 5 soon. This coming December."

"Oh, she's so young. Why isn't she with you?" Magra asks.

"She's living with my brother and his kids. I wasn't really happy being stuck on my home island, so I decided to work for Oyaji and just send money home to my daughter." She'd shrugged. Dadan knew there was something more personal about this. No mother would ever want to leave their kids unless there was a circumstance. She looks to Magra to tell him not to pry. There were some things you just shouldn't press.

"Sounds to me like you didn't want her to begin with," Dogra comments tactlessly from his bed, still clutching the bucket to his chest like a treasure. The nurse only smiles, melancholic on her painted red lips. "You're not far from the truth." She looks back to Dadan. "I had the idea, that it wasn't your choice to end-up with Ace."

Dadan could only nod. "He was forced into my home, no clue who his parents were. I was just told to take good care of him or I'll end up in prison." Dadan explains the gist of it.

"Sounds like it was quite a day… What did you feel Dadan-san? The first time you held a baby. The first time it cried. Do you remember what you did after it cried? Did you feel needed afterward?" She'd started asking, pulling-up a chair from the nurse's station to join them, somewhere along, her tone started to sound condensing, bitter almost.

It was Magra who spoke for her. "She was panicked. When Ace cried, she would pass him to me because I was the closest to her most of the time."

"Then she would scream, and Ace would cry more because she was loud." Dogra comments, smiling at the memory. Dadan scolds them, calls them idiots under her breath, but she grew fond of those memories. The truth was, she passed Ace around like he was a piping hot sweet potato when he cried.

She never really thought about it, but now that she did, she realized she was bitter when Garp did that. They weren't ready for him. He was just- there one day and suddenly he was there to stay. He was a baby, and they were given no choice but to keep him, something they never wanted. What did she feel when he arrived? What changed?

"We thought you were gonna keep passing him around Boss, but then one day, you actually changed his diapers yourself. And you started calling the night shifts; taking care of him so the rest of us can sleep." Dogra recalls the memory. "Must have crawled his way into your heart." Clawed his way, more likely. That kid was a wild animal when he was tiny.

"Yeah, well. I figured I might as well take care of him if you guys are gonna hunt the next day. I didn't feel special or anything, he wasn't my kid or anything." She responds. The nurse looks away to the window, as another storm rages outside.

"You guys should sleep. These will likely continue for the rest of the day. Believe me, the motion will get worse." Just as she said that Dogra releases another round of vomit into the bucket. After a few minutes, the Valerian root kicked in and he was fast asleep. Magra too, lulled by the waves of the sea, like a cradle he never knew he missed. Only Dadan and the nurse were left awake.

"Hey, about your question, when you asked how I felt…" Dadan brings up first. The nurse looks up at her, an indication that she was listening despite writing on her desk.

"At first, I passed Ace around because I wasn't ready. I was angry at Garp… really angry. I can't begin to express how mad I was and every time I looked at him. I can't help but imagine Garp under my boot." She admits, all those nights dreaming of actually punching the marine till he's black and blue. Some nights, she'd end up killing him in her dreams and she'd wake-up a little bit better but not quite satisfied, feeling wrong even.

"-but being angry and passing him around wasn't the best solution. People started hearing him outside the territory, baby wails, and stuff. Killed the few who wandered by and made a few vows to secrecy.- Uh… I mean, if word got out bandits were taking care of a baby, we'd be laughed at. And- the other bandits would think we were weak and use Ace to get to us, you know." Because she wasn't supposed to reveal why Ace had to be a secret.

"What changed Dadan-san?" She'd asked instead. "That you suddenly want to take care of him. The truth, please. I know you're only acting stoic because you needed to put on a tough face."

"The truth, why I suddenly took care of Ace? Well, it's because I woke up one day… I woke up one day and saw a baby sleeping next to me and suddenly I felt like I want to see it live and grow-up. Nothing more to it." The nurse looks at her, then back to her desk. Her pen wasn't moving, so she must have been lost in thought.

Dadan thinks to herself, 'how does one explain it? How the heart works.'

Never in her life did Curly Dadan ever dream of having a baby. Sure, Dadan was a very spontaneous dreamer, she can attest to that, but never had it been brought-up that she would ever want her own kids. She'd dream of many a thing. Princesses and fairies, Kings and witches, Bandits and Beasts and talking inanimate objects, but never did she think about babies. So it came as a shock to her that she was suddenly responsible for a little life. A life who couldn't even take care of himself. A baby who needed her but she refused to help him.

She admits, she wasn't the best mother and she never started out as a good one either. What she did was inexcusable. There were no buts to it. She admits, she skipped her responsibilities and passed him over to whoever was closest. She admits to feeding him things she didn't know she shouldn't have been feeding him. She admits to leaving him alone for long periods of time and letting him play on his own or whatever… and she knows now she was neglecting him. She understands now that, she thought, if she ignored him, he would disappear like he doesn't exist.

But he did exist, and one day, he found himself snuggled-up beside Dadan's pillow, placed there by anyone in her family.

She wakes to the sight of him there, the sun letting in little streams of light through her shoddy curtains. The light bouncing off his baby hairs, making it look softer with the glow from his pale skin. He was swaddled in the very same blanket Garp had brought him in, no pajamas to keep him cool through the humid night's air. One arm sticking out the blanket and drool escaping his wide-open mouth. The first thought that came to her mind was that he was there. That he exists, and he was hers now, and she was wrong.

Ace was her responsibility now… and he was such an ugly baby. She'd smiled the first time she realized it. That was probably what made her like him to begin with. The cute ugly baby she likes to call ugly.

She laughs at the memory. "He may have been an ugly baby, but he was sort of my charge, so I said, what the heck. Us ugly people have to stick together. What's another ugly mug in a family of ugly bandits. We accept anyone who wants to be a bandit, no matter who they are or where they came from. What's a little baby gonna change, right?" She explains with a shrug. It changed a lot actually; when they realized he was a monster. When they found out he was Gold Roger's kid, some stayed and some left, but look where it got them… they were all dead.

"I'd hardly call Ace nor you ugly, Dadan-san." The nurse finds herself smiling at the thought.

"Stop lying. I get that Ace grew up into that creature 'who attracts flies', but I was born with an ugly mug, and probably gonna die ugly or uglier. No use lying about it." She says it with a laugh and a smile like she'd accepted that fact years go. Probably the reason why she'd grown into such a size, letting go of herself and succumbing to the fact that no matter what she does, she'd never been like the other girls, and she was better off not caring. "So- between us girls, there's something more to your daughter's birth, isn't there?" The tension returns, along with the rocking of the boat. More waves and a rougher patch of sea probably.

"The situation was bad. I was 15 when I had her. Her father was a drunkard pirate and I never saw him again after he violated me in the streets. Somedays, I wished he'd just killed me." She'd said in one breath. She goes back to her work, the nurse wasn't expecting her to say anything, and maybe that was for the best.

"Yeah, well. The shitty father's got no right to see her anyway. You on the other hand… you're better off raising her while she's growing up." Dadan says it so casually. Like it was that easy… To look at her daughter and see what could have been if she weren't born.

She looked so much like her father and not a single trace of her on her features. Like her selfish stupid father, she was nothing to her but baggage. It was her baggage, but it didn't mean she couldn't just leave it to her brother and make him watch over it for her. It was better this way. The way things are now…

Dadan watches as she tightens her hold on her pen, paperwork was forgotten in favor of gritting her teeth and tensing her shoulders in anger and trying to placate herself with the thoughts of contentment. It was complex, her feelings… like she was angry and sad all at the same time. She was disappointed too and confused with a hint of scared. The whole mix of emotions that weren't healthy, an emotion dipped in more anger than resentment. Anger directed to the scum who gave the sperm and not the daughter she knew.

"You should have just dropped the baby if you're gonna feel like that for the rest of your life" Dadan finds herself saying. That snaps the nurse out of her bitter thoughts. She looks at Dadan like she was appalled by the very idea of abortion, and maybe she was, as a nurse who supports life. Yet Dadan was a mother. A foster mother, how dare she?! "-so why didn't you?" The real question.

She answers immediately, no hesitation. "It's wrong to kill life. She's just a child, a baby! She's done nothing wrong!"And it hit her like a train. Oh, how much of a hypocrite she was. All this time, she'd look at her child and associate her with the faceless man she doesn't even remember.

"The child's sin is not the parent's." Dadan's words. "When I found out Ace's parents were famous pirates, I wanted to return him to Garp. I found out he was a pirate's kid when he was a year old. We could have returned him, should have returned him so that this wouldn't have happened. The island of Dawn, our mountain, our forest, the village… gone. If only we were more cautious about Ace's heritage."

"Dawn was destroyed because of Ace's-" While the whole story wasn't clear to her, she holds herself back from asking. It wasn't her time to ask, and it wasn't the point either.

"Dadan-san… Do you regret it? Raising Ace, now that your home was-."

"Heck no." Her immediate answer. "Ace may not see me as his mother, but he's my kid. He takes more from me than he takes from his parents, all because I was there when he was growing up." That's the secret, that's what she reminds herself. "His parents are nothing to me, but he's something to me. His crimes against me are petty thievery and waking me up in the middle of the night because the brats can't sleep. His parents' crimes are worse, but that's not for us to know or remember because he didn't do it."

She looks the nurse in the eye, dead serious she says "I regret nothing back then, I regret nothing now."

The silence that followed was long and strained. The nurse shifts her eyes, back to her paperwork where she continues to write. She says nothing for a long time… It was Dadan who broke the silence.

"When you get back to your home island, your kid wouldn't be like you nor that man at all… If anything, your kid would be like your brother and his kids."

"That's what I was hoping for." The nurse's simple reply. And while Dadan doesn't like her answer, there was nothing she can do. All she can do is understand her situation and respect it.

There were different families in the world, different dynamics that she doesn't really know or care about, but if there's one thing that's certain, a real family loves each other, and the more time spent away from them is more time missing them than forgetting.

The conversation ends with gentle rocking. The sun didn't really come back-up, and the outside of the window looked like it was night time. She stands. "Do you want to get dinner with me? I'm suddenly really hungry." Dadan's stomach growls.

"Motion can do that to the body Dadan-san. Shall we go to the mess hall?"

"Yeah, uh… what's your name again?" Because she didn't really remember if she'd introduced herself yet.

"How rude of you to forget Dadan-san." She'd said it with no heat, she even smiles at her. "I'm Susan, Susan Jones." She'd finally introduced.

"Susan. Yeah, I remember now." Actually, she thinks she'll forget again in the future. "I'm actually old and forgetful, next time I ask, think it's because of my age." An excuse.

"You don't look so old Dadan-san." She comments again, sincerely. This girl likes to flatter her. Well, it's not working. (Actually, it was and she was moved by her kindness.)

"Shut-up." She'd said is as she places a hand to cradle her cheek, covertly whipping a tear from her eye. Still, she was hungry. "Let's go. I'm still hungry."

"Right." And off the two went to the galley. Little did they know of the troubles to come, nor the excruciating stench that will soon permeate the infirmary.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**I AM BEAT! These past two weeks had been busy and I swear I will find a new job! Sales is harder than I thought it would be. :[ It's not something for a loner introvert like me, but I'm having so much fun getting back in touch with old friends and acquaintances. :) Oh well, I guess I'll just have to find another job.**

**SakuraKoi- Hey! You're still reading this?! XD Thanks!**

**kuu.3- Yup! Good old reliable eldest kid, Ace! XD**

**ARandomGuest- Ahhh, ha. (*Wipes tears) You (*breathes) are giving me ideas! Honestly, I STILL HAVE NOT WRITTEN THE MEETING SCENE! It's all I want to write about but BAM! NOOOOTHIIIINGGGG! I just know that Dadan and Whitebeard will meet. They will meet. And Talk. And one of them ends up in the ocean like a wet cat. XD (Joking! I'm joking) -or am I? But For Now No Sabo! Sorry to disappoint you lot, but Sabo will not appear until turtles in Turkey.**

**0neShotMan- O heck no! This is not DadanX Law! If they meet, it would be for Luffy's and Law's marriage! XD**

**chibi-no-baka- Yes! Old habits die hard. After the bear incident, Dadan was always sending out bandits to look after the two and not just after they've gone missing. Eventually, some of her bandits ended up living in Low Town because of the rare days they visited the Terminal. XD**

**Updates are gonna be once a week. Life is too hectic to be normal now. T^T I wanna go back to being a student with loads of free time. Well, Enjoy!**


	16. I Will Keep You Close

**Hi! So, I know it's a late update, but this is 4K words and I'm getting busy.**

**Thank you for still reading and I know the pacing is pretty slow, but I think they are necessary.**

**So here's the update worth two weeks. -No update next week, it's All Souls Day and I'll be busy with family stuff.**

**Well, Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 17**

The worst has passed and the day was clear, still, Dadan and the others were told to expect the most least expected weather. They don't take the warning loosely either. Just after crossing the Calm Belt, they were pinned with bad storm after bad storm. Hurricanes the made wind like knives, Whirlpools the size of an island, Geysers that shoot-out who knows how tall. The worst disasters that a regular person would be lucky to escape once in their lifetime- and everyone on the board survived it all.

Dogra prayed his thanks to his god. He knelt down and raised his arms and sang songs from the church Magra hasn't heard in years. Dadan stared at the little bandit and thought twice. Last she checked, Dogra didn't have a god.

The group were out on the deck today, once again doing chores such as laundry and cleaning the infirmary. The nurse tried to stop them, saying they can take care of it, but Dadan insists because she all but took the room for herself, and Dogra had made it smell like acid with all his puking.

While Dadan had all but tried to do more, like sweep and mop, she was instantly stopped and requested to sit down somewhere else.

"I don't get ya shits. I'm trying ta help with housework, that's the only shit I can do around here and yer' taking it from me too!" She screams, stomps and practically wrestles the mop from Dogra's hands. Yet she was proving to be too lightweight and too easy to brush to the side and duck under. She curses this body more than ever.

"Dadan, they're just concerned." Ace takes hold of her before she actually does wrestle Dogra to the ground. "You haven't been at your best lately, and … well… you haven't really thought about the offer yet, have you?"

She huffs, breaks herself away from Ace's hold on her arm and screams at him, "I fucking have. I'm no nursemaid or shit. I'm a bandit and I'll die a bandit." There, she said it.

But Ace wasn't that simple, no. Ace had a way of going against her and pushing her buttons. She tries to shove him out of the nest, he'll latch on like a leach. She tells him to stay, he'll whisk his brother away and stay somewhere else and give her a heart attack. There was no difference today. "I thought I told you to at least try old hag! You ate a fucking devil fruit and it's literally useless in your hands!"

"I fucking tried and I DON'T. WANT. IT.!" She screams back.

"WHY?!" Ace's response. Dadan stares. And stares and stared, baffled.

Now that was new. Ace, in the past, didn't bother to hear her reasoning. Chucking it up to getting tired listening to her and her screaming like a banshee. This, asking her why… was off-putting. It completely threw her off guard, and maybe that's why she suddenly broke.

"Uhh… Dadan?" Ace stirs her from her thoughts. Suddenly Ace notices the sag on her cheeks and the dark areas around her eye. The slight hunch of her shoulders made her look more tired, more defeated.

"I'm not meant for this. Eating the fruit was a mistake. I'm out." She says instead as she turns to the mess hall. She needs alcohol. Any cheap one would do. She didn't care that it was just past noon and that she'd finished lunch. Alcohol sounds good right about now.

That leaves Ace and everyone on the deck staring at her retreating back.

"Ace-" Luffy calls from the mast where he was tied for safekeeping since no one was there to really watch over him. "I think Dadan's sad and mad… She's sad-mad." He says so innocently with his large chocolate brown doe eyes. If that wasn't enough to melt everyone's hearts, he pouts, and every rough and tough pirate who saw can turn to mush.

Ace had grown tolerant of those eyes and that pout, so he pouts back. "Well, what am I supposed to do?" He answers for himself. "Apologize and let her not use her fruit?"

Luffy whines, still staring into Ace's eyes. "Aaaaaace." Because that's the right answer and he's not listening.

* * *

"Makino…" Dadan enters the mess hall and calls for the young barmaid.

"Dadan-san," She responds with a smile from the back of the counter. Her safe place, oddly fitting for her despite the setting not being Party's Bar.

"I'm beat. Get me alcohol. Any cheap shit would do."

Suddenly, she was approached by a man. The one she'd seen idling around the ship. "Excuse me ma'am, but I heard Ace say you were sick and I don't think you should be drinking any alcohol." A brown-haired man, probably in his late 20's, a heavyweight brawny guy he was. Dadan was actually expecting a fight from a guy like this, not a reprimand on her health.

"I'm no ma'am. I'm Dadan-san. That's the only name any of you can call me." She says instead, "And I can drink this shit when I want. It's too cold out there without it anyway."

"Ah, Samuel-san." Makino greets as she serves Dadan a small flask of sake along with the small sake cup she sips from.

"Good morning Makino-san." Samuel greets with a blush. Dadan puts in a mental note to talk to Makino about these boys and to get it to their brains that she's already called for.

"Makino-san. I don't think Dadan-san should be getting that much alcohol in her system since she's sick." Samuel states his case.

Makino could only smile politely, albeit sadly. "I don't think she's sick, she's only recovering… and she isn't used to living without a little bit at least when it's too cold outside."

"I lived in a hot humid mountain. The alcohol helps get the heat back since we can't really light bond fires here, and the infirmary is so damn cold." She pours herself another cup and sips it slowly.

"Ah, I'll be back in the kitchen Dadan-san. Here are some nuts to snack on." She'd left a medium-sized bowl with peanuts in them. She thanks Makino as she returns to the back of the counter and further into the kitchen.

"Dadan-san, could I sit with you?" Samuel asks, looking at the empty spot in front of her.

"Yeah, well, I'm the guest on this ship. Sit wherever you want." She finds herself answering, she hopes she wasn't too cold to the lad.

Samuel takes a seat right in front of her. She pushes the bowl of nuts towards him. Inviting him to partake, and he does get a few.

"I'm guessing you're going to ask for details about Makino." Dadan finds herself jumping the gun. To which he blushes bright red.

Ah, youth. Was it ever this entertaining to watch them fumble? Ace used to fumble like this around Makino too. She used to like watching him blush bright red until the day he no longer did after all those manners and lessons. She guesses, Ace had moved on, or rather, found out she was promised to someone already.

"Samuel, before I tell you anything I first have to tell you that Makino is a loyal faithful girl." That sentence brought a smile on his lips but was soon receded by the following... "She's only loved one man all her life and that man promised she'd be the only one for him."

"I… found out about that from Ace already." He admits. "It's not that hard to give up. And- the seas are merciless, unforgiving. That man could be dead by now." He was hopeful, despite the cruelty of his words, he held onto his hope.

Dadan doesn't laugh. She wants to, but doesn't. There was nothing to laugh about. It was true. The sea was merciless, cruel and chooses no man to kill nor crew to sink. The pirate she promised her heart to could be dead by now, considering he'd sailed the Grand Line and even reached the New World. Yet she doubts he'd be dead. He's a powerful pirate, last she'd heard. Strong and tenured to the wiles of the sea.

Then there was Samuel. Samuel who's heart was set on Makino despite knowing it was wrong to covet someone who doesn't like him the same way. There was a young man, about the same age as the girl, who finds her lovely and wants nothing but to show her that…

"Don't hurt yourself kid. More men fall in the pits of forbidden love than men drown in the ocean." Her advice. "Makino is kind to anyone. It hurts her too you know. You're a pretty decent guy, and probably already a close friend in her eyes. Don't ruin what you have."

Samuel looks down on the table. Fist clenched and digging into the palm of his hands. "W-what does her lover have that I don't?" Not yet ready to give up, is he now? Dadan sees a fire in his eyes, the dangerous kind. The kind she'd have to talk out before she really does drop the guy in the ocean to cool down. He needs a drink.

"You! Get us a drink here. Some gin or rum." She'd called one of the servers behind the counter.

"I don't drink Dadan-san." Samuel responds.

"Makino is a barmaid by profession. If you don't get the art of merry drinking down, the more you don't deserve her." She'd find herself enjoying ruffling his feathers. He takes it as a challenge.

Samuel may be a decent guy after all. He was hesitant to drink rum without diluting it, a sign he was not a drunk nor was he addicted to alcohol. The kind of man who prefers to work with a clear mind and nothing to cause him too much trouble. A decent man. Which is the complete opposite of Makino's type.

She laughs at him for trying to dilute the rum with more water until it was practically grog without the lemon. That does nothing but make it taste like shit.

After a few good shots in, Dadan finds herself commenting. "Ya know, you really aren't Makino's type." She points to him, "You're too proper to be a pirate." Her observation. Makino likes pirates, sure, but there was always that little bit of something she craves from them. Their carefree smiles, she mentioned once. Their attitude towards life, their freedom… There were a lot of things she mentioned.

"You aren't completely wrong… I was an emergency responder in my home island. A Paramedic of sorts" He finds himself opening up to her. "Pops saved our island from the worst drought we've ever had. There were fires almost every other day due to the heat of the sun and there was no water to put out the flames." He'd tell the story of the island. It was a large island with only one fresh river vein at the side closer to the ocean and the large cities. He lives in a village at the other side where water was more scarce and ocean water didn't reach them due to the hills and mountains. The people would be very careful of the river vein, and despite being in the other side of it, they were supplied freshwater regularly in the aqueduct system. There was no washing done on the river, no wastes on the river and no contamination. That's just how important the river was to their lives. Then one day, the river dried up. The sun was torturously blinding and the whole island was in a state of emergency and the World Government had turned their backs on them.

Then a Whitebeard ship docked on their shores and they offered help to all the villages and the city. We survived that season thanks to the Whitebeard Pirates.

"When we found out they were recruiting medical staff, I decided to join because the Whitebeards were said to have the best medical doctors in their crew. Working for them for just a year would be an honor, and I was only supposed to be here for a year, but Pops and everyone… I don't ever want to leave." Samuel had said fondly, cheeks red and flushed. Dadan thinks he may be an emotional drunk.

"I don't want you leaving either Sam, you're like, a real brother to me already." Beside Samuel was another pirate. Someone who wandered in at the middle of the story and sat himself down beside Samuel. "Give me a hug brother!" The man opens his arms, ready to hug Samuel, only for Sam to duck and sit a little bit away.

"Geeze Murf, don't embarrass me in front of Dadan-san."

Dadan laughs. "Trust me brat, you've embarrassed yourself plenty enough, even before you sat down." Then when she looked around, she finds herself in the middle of a group of rowdy pirates. All of which were laughing at her joke. The warmth felt so much more familiar than she thought. She recalls the days before…

She recalls her bandits, sitting like this around her, and laughing and partying at the simplest of things.

"What are ya boys doing? Drinking around in the middle of the day?" She'd playfully ask. There were 5 men around her. Everyone around her laughs, but they all have an answer and a convoluted excuse. Those cheeky brats were skipping off their work, but there was one that caught her attention.

"Just saw Samuel here talking to you, figured he's trying to get some tips on how to get Makino-chan to his coot." A young-looking face said from the side. One she rarely sees and so, doesn't really recognize. She rolls her eyes. Of course, there will always be dirty-minded people. This kind of talk is also there with her bandits.

"Already told him, she's promised to someone else. He's-"Dadan tries to find the words, "-the complete opposite of Samuel." Dadan explains as the rest of them quiet down. "Don't make this harder on her, and should you try- any of you boys try on any girl you like, prepare for the shit-storm."

The crowd was silent, a somber kind of quiet. It was like Dadan had unleashed a large bomb of reality on the crowd of merry sailors. The guys beside Samuel were patting his back to comfort him. Well, these boys look young, this rowdy group would be about 30-s or younger.

"Oh you lot are just being depressing now. What happened to your spirit from a while ago?" Dadan asks, the rest of them just smile sadly at her. "Hey, it ain't the end of the world, liking one person. There's a million fishes in the sea… and you don't need to get married to get a happy life. Heck, I never fell in love and look, I got myself two boys to look after and two annoying brats to raise." She'd poured herself a drink. "And you boys, you of all people should know that."

"Yeah, there's more to family than blood… but love is a different thing, Dadan-san." A guy from beside her adds. "Call us foolish and young, but don't you sometimes wish you had a warm hand to hold? Someone, to get back to after a long journey? Someone to think about and miss?" ("-a pretty lady to kiss. To fuck and make babies with." Someone from the gathering crowd adds with a laugh.) She shoots that comment a glare before settling back down.

"Yup. You boys are idiots, you don't even realize the trouble yer' causing'." She'd huffed, placing her hands on her hips even as she sits down. "I stick by my words. There's more to life than that kind of love, if you even find that kind of love." Because she hadn't; and she's been alive for a good 52 years.

"You boys may not notice it, not yet, but when you're always away, what happens to the ones you leave behind? What kind of parent are you to yer' kids? What kind of husbands are ya' to yer' wives? Sure, ya provide, but let me tell ya, there's ways to earn a living in the place where you're from and truthfully, you'd just want to run away. So, what kind of parents? The type that's selfish that's what." She'd given them the truth. That's all she's saying. "The bandits in my family… I used to tell them that… If they want a place to stay they can stay as long as they follow my rules, but the moment they knock-up a lass, they'd have to quit. They'll need ta' start their own family. I'll kick them out if I have to, and make them start again in some other town."

Some of them try to argue, some of them try to steer her out of it. That they love their family and the only way for them to earn is to go to sea. She still calls it bull. Then there was the issue of one of them knocking-up a lass and the girl asked for financial support at least. The sailor didn't love her. She was mean, but a good lay he'd admitted. More guys join in to tell their tales and there was suddenly a group of 12 around her.

Even Commander Vista joins in to add his part "It matters not if you love them or not. It is but a matter of time before you get used to their presence and fall-in love with them. So be a man and take responsibility, even if you don't want to at first. Financial support is good, financial support and being there is better." Because love isn't suddenly there. It takes time. It takes patience to realize you're in love. Vista may be a romantic, but Dadan agrees.

"You lot don't even understand the dangers of leaving your keep alone. The world is a dangerous shit hole. There are slavers and celestial dragons and marines all around. Ya' seriously gonna leave yer' family vulnerable like that? Did ya' hide them in a mountain like I did? D'ya teach them to break free of binds, hunt their food, steal for a living and fight for their lives like I did?" She finds herself slipping into her usual speech. Her own accent- the bandits once called it.

"Dadan-san…" Samuel speaks, there was a strain to his voice as he'd asked. "Makino's lover… he left her, so why does she still…"

"He made a promise, both to Makino and Luffy. He'd have returned for her in 10 years, just the right age for Luffy to set sail, and she'd finally be free to travel with him. At least, that's what I heard." Dadan thinks… Does Makino want to find her lover now that they were mostly safe? Maybe she'd wanted to see them off in a mountain first before she takes off on her own, or maybe she's really waiting for Luffy to turn 17. "She keeps that promise close to her heart."

"I- see." Samuel stands from his seat. "I… I think I need some time alone. I'll see you guys later." He leaves.

Just when dinner gets served in the mess hall. A man hands Samuel his dinner before he goes out into the deck.

Dadan stares at his retreating back. She waits a few minutes before she speaks.

"You- yeah, you. Murley? You're his friend, you should go and watch over him, make sure he doesn't jump the railing and shit." She reverts back to her usual self. The one that doesn't give a shit about love nor talking about it or any other advice from an old maid.

"I'm Murfy, Dadan-san." He says as he downs his mug and waves a lazy goodbye. He follows her orders none the less and does check-up on Samuel.

"And take a plate brat! It's bad ta' skip dinner!" She adds. Murfy was already handed a tray by the kitchen staff as he flashes a thumbs-up without looking back.

While that was happening, a few of those in her drinking circle couldn't help but smile. They weren't always around women, and even the nurses wouldn't drink with them like the rest of the crew. Dadan was something else. She doesn't mind the green jokes, she stayed this long after all; and she's perfectly fine after drinking so much. She doesn't act like a girl, and is more like one of the guys.

She wasn't overly motherly either, not like their mothers who openly show their love, to the point that they get embarrassed. She was just worried but doesn't act like it. She sends other people to talk to them because she knows her limits. She voices her concern but doesn't push. She doesn't need to repeat herself around them either.

"Alright guys, break it up. Dadan needs to get back to the infirmary." Ace finds his way to their circle. "The infirmary's clean. You're good to go back."

"Awww, but she's a good drinkin' buddy." One of them whines from the side. "C'mon Acey. We're not hurtin' anyone."

Ace shoots them an unimpressed stare, "Yeah, and she'll need to get back before her curfew."

Dadan frowns, whines at that. "What?! No! I don't have a curfew!" The others around her got a mixed reaction of snickers and whines and nos.

"You do now. Marco's making sure you get all better from whatever happened to you. So he's set-up a diet and sleep plan and you'll be having no sake for the rest of the week."

"Booo! Down with Tyranny! I'm a bandit boss and I do what I want!" She'd raised her mug. The others around her cheers to that. ("You're a bandit?" Could be heard in the crowd- probably by someone who still didn't know.)

"Well, I'm a pirate and you're on a ship. You follow my orders or you get strapped to the mast."

"You can't tie me to the mast! Luffy's already tied to the mast."

"There's room for one more." Ace says it seriously.

"You can't tie me to the mast. I'm not even going on a fit, and I'm older than you. A-and you're a pirate, shouldn't you be dishing out threats like walking on the plank?"

"Do you want to walk the plank?" Someone from the drinking circle asked.

"Fuck no! I want to get out off this ship and walk on land." ("Haha! Your' not the only kinky bastard!" Is cheered at the side. Promptly ignored.)

Ace sighs. "I think you've had enough alcohol for one day Dadan."

"I'm not standing from this seat until all these guys pass out." The rest of them cheered in approval. "You'll be here all night!" One of them adds. "I was betting on it!" She yells at that. The rest of those gathered decided it was a good time to play music, and the real party was just getting started.

Ace rolls his eyes but makes his way beside her to lift her up from her seat. "Hey!" She struggled, but Ace was too strong. He decided it would be a better idea to carry her like a sack of potatoes strewn across his shoulder and back.

"You Brat! Just because I got thinner, doesn't mean I'll ever go easy on ya' you hear?!" She kicks his side, knees his rib and punches his back and shoulders. Nothing seems to work.

"Have you already forgotten your sick old hag?"

"I'm not fuckin' sick!" She screams as she was brought out of the mess hall. The rest of them just greeted her goodnight. Some even saying they'll visit her tomorrow. None of them goes to stop Ace from carrying his foster mother out of the mess.

She silently curses them. So much for drinking buddies, but tells them not to fuckin' even think about visiting her. The others promptly ignored her and laughed, like the merry mess they were.

When she got out of the mess, she was greeted with the dark sky and the moon and stars. Oh, it was this late already? She didn't even notice it.

"Well, Dadan. In two days' time, we'll reach the Moby. And you've made your decision…." Ace says. She can't see the face he's making, but she'll have to guess that he's pouting over it. "We'll find you an island and the rest is up to you."

"Finally!"

"Shut-up old hag. You are such a waste of a good fruit. Can't even understand the value of a Pharmacy, stupid dumb old hag."

"Brat! I'm right here you know!" She elbows him a the back of the head. Even that wasn't strong enough to get a rise out of the boy. Not for the first time, she curses the devil fruit.

There was a minute of silence, but there was a different tension in the air. Dadan could almost expect what Ace was going to say next.

"Dadan… I'm sorry." Ace says. "I've caused you trouble again. If I wasn't…"

"Shut-up." She interrupts because she know where this is going. "Those stupid Marines were the ones at fault."

The same speech she'd hear him say to Garp and his brothers. Dadan hated that apology. Ace could apologize for literally everything else he's done, and she'd listen. Being born wasn't a sin. And if he was gonna go that way, then she's the one who kept him alive until he was old enough to fend for himself. She was as much a sinner as he was.

"And the next time I get my hands on them, I'm gonna destroy every single one of their stupid boats, burn their uniforms into ashes and their stupid justice into a pile of flaming coal." She'd added, "Then I'll toss it all in the fuckin' ocean where no one will find it!"

Ace stifles a laugh. "Old hag, you're drunk!"

"I ain't drunk. I'm perfectly sober. That's just how much I hate those snobby Marines."

"Well, at your current state, you can't really do all that now, could you?"

Dadan crosses her arms. She could, if she wanted to. -In reality, no, she can't.

"Then how about the next time we see a marine ship, I burn it down for you? Burn their uniforms and sails, send their ship to the bottom of the ocean. How does that sound?" Ace says a chilling laugh. Dadan could only imagine how his face would look like, but in her mind, she'd already guessed it was the same face she was making behind his.

"It won't be as satisfying, but go ahead. Bring them hell."

The next day, an unlucky marine ship crossed their path. Dadan has never been more proud.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**Two days time and THEY WILL FINALLY MEET! XD XD XD I still haven't written it! I need inspiration! HELP!**

**SakuraKoi- Thank you for your active support! XD And constant reviewing. -For a strange reason, it's oddly reassuring that I'll at least get 1 review every time I post something. XD**

**Just a reminder everyone, I won't be updating next week. :) Well, Enjoy!**


	17. Hold You Tight

**This turned out pretty long,,, another 4K chapter! -but this was two weeks worth of work. Next chapter might be like this too. I find it easier to write when I have two week deadlines. :)**

**Well my valued readers, Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 18**

The Ship over the horizon was huge.

Dadan didn't need to know much about distance and perspective to know that the boat all the way at the edge, between sea and sky, Is the size of an island.

"Woah! It's Huge!" Luffy says from the side, tied to Ace's waist with his own arms. The boy was so excited he was practically vibrating and pushing-up a fuss. Ace clamps his arm down under his armpit, a useless safety measure should Luffy suddenly go flying past the rails.

"Ne, Ace, is that where your captain is? Is he as big as your ship? Is he a giant? Can he reach the clouds? Do the clouds taste like candy?" Luffy asks with his childlike enthusiasm. Everyone on deck couldn't help but smile fondly at the kid. -It would also be fun to mess with him…

"Hey Luffy, you're partly right. Pops is like a half-giant. And the clouds taste sweet, but not like candy." One of the pirates off the side tells as he sits on a barrel as he lazily sips from his mug.

"You've eaten clouds before?!" Luffy asks with glee, practically hopping over with Ace in tow.

"Well, I wouldn't say I've eaten clouds, but there is a place so close to the sky, you could already taste the clouds. That's one of the places we go to."

"Wow! I wanna go there too someday!"

"That's nothing. Back at Paradise, we heard of a rumor. There's such a thing as a sky island." One more of the pirates add. A big man who Luffy knew was bald underneath his bandana. Luffy wasn't good with names, but he thinks he introduced himself with an A.

"Really bald guy?! There's an island in the sky?! That's so amazing! Have you seen it?!"

"I'm Artie. But Nah… I haven't seen it yet. Pops tells us stories tho, Pops had been there."

"So COOL!" Luffy cheers. Drifting and babbling more questions about Sky island and it's people.

Dadan looks at the horizon, the destination was still a distance away. Beside her was Makino, also looking over at the large ship in the distance. If she were nervous, she doesn't show it.

Makino was a brave girl, a gentle girl and a strong one in her own way. She rarely showed what she was truly thinking if the situation doesn't call for it at all. Dadan has to ask. "Ma-chan. What do you want to do after we meet with Ace's captain?"

"Uh, pardon Dadan-san?"

"Don't give me that look Makino, what do you want to do after this? We find an island, invade a mountain and hide. That's our way of living, not yours…" She looks he straight in the eyes now, deeply serious.

"What do you want to do Makino?"

There was silence between the two. Dadan finds herself sitting down on the sun chair Ace makes her sit down on when he doesn't want her doing the chores. She'd been completely ignoring it after her first use but now seemed like a good time to use it. She sits with a grunt as she fixes her dress.

Today was a dress day apparently, she was having a good time wearing dresses now, since she found them comfortable to wear. She finds herself wearing more and more of those long flowy ones she only ever dreamed of wearing. Now, she was actually wearing them, in a color she never really thought would suit her- pink.

Makino follows beside her, leaning her back on the wall behind her as she talks to Dadan. "I think… I'm going to see Shanks."

"You plannin' to look for im' yerself?" She finds herself slipping back into her usual accent, crossing her arms as she leans back on the chair. "Or ya gonna send him a clue where you'll be?"

"I'll be with you first. I'll make sure you are settled before I set off. I'll be with Luffy and I'll go my own way when I get a lead on him."

"Not a bad choice, but are you even sure you can handle the world as you are now?"

There was a minute of silence. Only the sound of the gentle lapping waves and the wind catching in the sails could be heard from their spot near the infirmary door. The men on deck were oddly few and quiet, likely taking up their breakfasts at the galley.

"You know, if they find out who yer' promised ta'… they'd throw a fit to get ya' back. I swear, these boys are possessive of those they consider theirs." Dadan complains as she usually does, lips extended, voice pitching and looking pissed. She was far from displeased though, she was actually flattered they accepted them, especially after she'd drank and partied with them. Luffy's been having his own fun with them. Even Magra and (maybe not so much on Dogra) have been welcomed in when they have the time.

Their captain was a good man, the crew was a good crew, and Ace seems happy here. There was nothing to complain about.

Makino smiles, she even giggles but hides it behind her hand. "I know. They're very good people." She finds herself saying, "-but they certainly aren't like him."

"Ma-chan… Are you sure you love im'? That yer willing ta trade everything to be beside im'?"

Makino answers with a cheeky smile. "Dadan-san, I've been set to leave everything for him the moment he told me he loved me."

"Everything but Luffy?"

"Everything but Luffy." Makino confirms with determination in her eyes.

"Yeah, I thought as much."

At the corner of Dadan's eye, she sees a familiar silhouette slink over to soundlessly enter the door at the other end of the deck. Undetected by Makino who was looking straight at the horizon.

She only hopes he understands now what Makino feels.

She only hopes he lets her go gracefully, without a fuss.

"Dadan…" Ace calls as he comes her way, Luffy still tied to him. "Please don't embarrass me in front of Pops." He says.

"As if you need me to embarrass yourself." Dadan snarks. Makino hides her giggle behind a hand. Luffy openly guffaws and laughs at Ace. Ace rolls his eyes… yeah sure, whatever. But Ace already has a retort.

"Then don't embarrass yourself old hag." Ace returns with a smirk, "If my captain doesn't like you, he might really crush you."

Dadan gulps. "Yer' lyin'. Newgate's a nice guy. Laughs a lot and stuff."

"Wait." Ace realizes he's been missing out on something. "You've talked to him?"

"Yeah. Over the Den-den. He's an ok guy."

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Why would I tell you? It's no big deal."

"Ok." Ace breathes. "Who else knows you've been talking to Pops?" Because, really, there are a hundred dangers that come with talking to a Yonko. Marines tapping lines was Ace's greatest concern.

"Lots of people, the nurses, that one tall guy with blonde hair and boxing gloves- Kingdew. That Marco commander-person." Dadan thinks. "Not sure if Magra or Dogra knows, but they've walked in on me talking with him, just not sure if they were curious."

"Ok… ok. Commanders know, that's- that's ok. Are you sure your lines were secure?" Ace has to ask.

"Uh… what does that mean?"

Of course, her lines aren't secured! There's still hope though. Ace is positive that Commander Marco won't let Pops near a single Den-den mushi that isn't safe to use… Unless Pops took one for himself without telling anyone…

* * *

**MARINEFORD**

"Garp's listening in on Whitebeard's lines again." Tsuru tells Sengoku during one of their breaks.

"It's good that he's working for once, but that isn't his responsibility." Sengoku sighs. "Something's been up with Garp… He hasn't found out his island's been…"

"If he has, he hasn't told anyone. He isn't grieving either… We'll never know since it's Garp."

"Why does he always pose more problems than he's worth?"

The wall near the door crumbles under Garp's fist.

"For Goodness sakes! Use the door Garp!" Sengoku scolds, but was promptly ignored by a fist to the table.

"Whitebeard is getting old." Garp says instead. Sengoku just raises a brow and Tsuru only stares. Garp, for his part, only looks to them both for a reaction. It was Tsuru who asks first.

"Yes, we know he's getting old. You're not getting any younger either Garp."

"That's not what I mean, and you know it Tsuru." Garp huffs but turns back to reporting. "Old Whitebeard's been sneaking a call to a lesser ship. He's been talking to someone called Dadan at the other end of the line. She's the one who took care of the super rookie, Portages D. Ace." That report caught Sengoku's attention. Portages D. Ace was Garp's lesser known grandson around the base. Only Sengoku knows of his connection to Garp.

"Bandit Hag, Curly Dadan, the one who caused the tragedy of the island in East Blue?" Tsuru relays her knowledge, but asks it like a question. "How'd she end up in New World so quickly? She's still a rookie… Didn't you last see her at Louge town in your report Garp?"

"Yes." Garp admits as he takes a seat beside Tsuru, helping himself to the crackers on the table. "I last saw Bandit Hag escaping at the port, but Whitbeard's men were there as well. I didn't think they would be there to help the Bandit Pirates util they actually got on their ship."

"Bandit Pirates? Is that what they're calling themselves now?" Sengoku asks. That's the first time he's heard of them.

"Beats me. All I know is they are bandits on the sea. So technically, they're pirates now. So Bandit Pirates." Garp points out. "So, what should we do about Whitebeard getting old?"

Sengoku deadpans. "Garp, Whitebeard is getting old."

"I know. So? What are we gonna do about it?" The Buddha applies pressure to the point of his nose between his eyes. He takes a deep breath and mutters up the calmest tone of voice he can conjure to talk to his (semi-insubordinate) subordinate. "Garp, for the last time, Whitbeard and everyone in the world gets old. We're all getting old. There's nothing we can do to stop our aging."

"I know. But Whitebeard is getting too old."

"We do nothing then. Let him grow old and die a happy illegal life with all his so called sons." Sengoku responds in the spur of the moment.

"Oh… Fine. Sure. We can do that. It's not like Whitebeard's suddenly obtained the Ope-ope no mi or the Pharma-pharma no mi, right?" Garp shrugs.

"Yes Garp. There is no way that Whitbeard would come across that specific fruit in his remaining short years to come. Even then, only in the hands of the most competent professionals would those fruits work. The chances of the Whitebards getting those fruits would be lower than their chances of beating Kaido, right now at his old age." Sengoku was positively sure they would never come across it. Not when Trafalgar Law, the current wielder of the Ope-ope no mi, is at the North Blue and the Pharma-pharma being lost for the last 50 years.

"So what do we do about the Bandit Hag?" Tsuru adds. "She may still be a threat. Even if she is now under Whitebeard's protection."

Garp chokes on his crackers. He takes Sengoku's tea and chugs it down instead. "I- I'll take care of it. She's from East Blue after all."

"Garp, do you know her?" Tsuru finds herself asking. "She came from your home island."

"My home island? Huh… I didn't know. I haven't visited it for a while. I'd love to see my grandkids soon, but the last audit got me busy." He lies so smoothly. Sengoku would have believed it if he didn't know that Garp knew.

"Oh, Garp." Tsuru finds herself pitying the man. He doesn't even know.

"We need to talk." -Tsuru then explains what happened to Dawn.

* * *

Before the man she'd been talking to for the last few days, Dadan can't seem to wrap it around her head that he was right in front of her. Right across the deck, just a few feet away. The captain of the ship wore a white coat over his shoulders. He was littered with medical devices like the breathing tube in his foce and a few other tubes that goes in his chest and his arm.

Dadan knew he was old, he'd said he was 72 years old, and Dadan knew a 71 year-old would look like Gerry who was 74 before he- This was no time to remember that.

She knew his age, and he'd mentioned his moniker as Whitebeard, but she'd grown fond of calling him Newgate instead. He did't complain and it stuck. She knew only that much, but he didn't mention he was that big.

He was — much bigger than she'd imagined.

Dadan was a tall lady, being the only 7-foot woman in the whole island, she was relatively the tallest person among them, as such, she was not used to actually staring up at someone so tall that she'd actually have to look up.

His smile was wide, and he had a large crescent moon mustache on his upper lip, and Dadan should have taken that mustache on Ace's tattoo more seriously. But the way he smiles, how his eyes vividly sparkle as he welcomes them, how he was practically greeting them welcome home already. Dadan almost wants to turn back.

"Dadan!" He greets from across the deck, still standing and holding his weapon like a walking stick. His voice was a lot deeper and clearer than the voice on the Den-den mushi. She couldn't help but think it was nice.

"Newgate!" She'd ended up responding as she makes her way down the deck. She didn't even notice she was waving until she saw the other men on deck smiling back at her. When she was only two feet away, she stops to look up at him. And look up she did.

"It's nice to finally meet you." He said as he crouches down (as low as he can and with much strain- she notes) and extends a hand. The all too large hand that she couldn't even wrap both her hands around. She instead holds the tip of his finger and gives it a pump or two.

"You- are a lot taller than I imagined." Dadan had confessed. "When they said half-giant, I thought, — I dunno' 10 feet tall, maybe as tall as Foosa or Blenheim."

"Gurararara, clearly, you've underestimated me."

"Oh really now? Big ego you've got there bub."

"I think, my ego is big enough for a man my size." He remarks.

She snarks "Ever heard the saying' the bigger they are the harder they fall?"

"Yet I have yet to fall, my ego's holding me up well enough."

"Tell that to yer' old knees. Those things' ait getting younger ya old bucket of bones." The crew members who were there for the exchange were offended. Some of them already had their hands on their weapons, ready to attack the woman for insulting Pops. What happens next comes as a shock to everyone witnessing it.

The two burst into laughter, loud and boisterous. They'd both ended up laughing at the old person jibes they've been joking about the last few days. Both having come-up with some of the most annoying, bordering disturbing jokes about getting old enough to just lie down and never wake up from exhaustion.

"Haa…" Dadan wheezes. "It's good ta' finally meet ya old man. Thanks, for takin' care of Ace, and letting us settle at one of yer' islands."

"Think nothing of it Dadan. My sons' families are my family. What happened to you people were terrible. We'd have to talk about it some other time."

"Hmmm, maybe someday. We've been dealing with it in our own way." She says it more somberly than their usual banter. The subject was still sore for her, and Newgate was just a sweet man to know when to lay off it.

"Of course. Take your time." Whitebeard had said. They didn't even realize they've settled on his seat, with her perched on one of it's arms while her feet were on his thigh, boots tossed to the side as she makes herself comfortable. It was an oddly calming scene to see on behalf of the Whitebeards who got to know Dadan, but to the rest of them, they were confused. Who was this woman talking to Pops like an old friend?

"So, what did yer' eldest put us through this time? Said he preped a diet plan and a curfew." Dadan added. "D'ya actually follow this stuff? No sake for a week? Bull crap."

"You managed to sneak a bottle for yourself Dadan?" He'd been having trouble pilfering himself a bottle ever since Marco had banned him and told every single one of his sons not to indulge him. Even Thatch who would occassionally sneak him a bottle had been banned to enter the sake storage.

"Who said anything' bout sneaking a bottle? I just told them boys at kitchen duty I'm cold here at sea, and I need a small bottle ta' warm me up. The sake does it's job just fine too."

"Oh you smart little- ."

"Don't give yer' praises just yet. The Pheonix is here now, and he's harder to convince."

"You're not wrong there." Newgate adds. "Think you can ask one of yer' boys to get one for me?"

"Pops!" Ace scolds from the side, Luffy still tied around his torso. "I heard that."

Whitebeard grumbles under his breath. Dadan hides her smile behind a hand.

It was only a matter of time before Whitebeard meets Monkey D. Luffy, and boy, was that a first impression.

"Giant Banana Mustache-osan! " He'd first said to the Whiteboard Captain. Dadan laughs, loud and unabashed as the rest of the crew panic at the outright disrespect from the kid. Even Ace puts a hand over Luffy's mouth, scolding his brother through his teeth, forced smile and scolding not at all matching.

"He's not wrong there Newgate." Dadan adds as she wipes a tear. Whitebeard pouts, looking more like a kicked puppy than a fearsome pirate captain.

"That kind of hurts. I like my mustache, it's my whole image." He'd said. Dadan continues to smile as she looks at his face again, she places a finger to her chin and sticks out her bottom lip, the pose of a person who is very clearly thinking.

"I think…" She continues to smile, "- You look like a banana mustache old man." She repeats Luffy's comment. Whitebeard pouts even more. "But I also think it suits you. In fact, it's very original and unique. It's just like you. It's perfect!"

"I don't think it's very flattering to be associated with a banana." Whitebeard adds with a grumble.

"Well, I think it's a theme. Marco looks like a Pineapple, and you look like a banana. It suits you guys despite not planning it in advance."

"Ouch, you insulted me and my eldest son. That's very mature Dadan." Whitebeard whines sarcastically, nothing bad or hostile in his tone. His eyes were still smiling and Dadan continues, light-hearted as ever.

"Hey, if I have ta' lump Ace with you guys, Im' callin' him a Watermelon. He's still using that ratty old watermelon bag he got from who knows where." Dadan adds, "And so I've gone n' insulted one of mine as well. We're even."

Newgate pretends to be offended, "How could you, you scoundrel? I thought we were friends." He pokes her side with a large finger, she wiggles away as she pokes the only part of him she could reach, his arm.

"Oh we are. Why do you think I'm laying it thick?" She smiles, all teeth and bite, "Banana Mustache."

They both burst out laughing. Just finding another thing to tease each other with. Talking in the den-den was fun, but teasing him in real life was better.

They were interrupted by loud coughing from the side. "Pops, I think it's time for you to welcome everybody else." Marco comments as Vista makes his way to stand beside Marco.

"Boss, let's get you down from there." Magra interrupts stealthily as he'd stepped off to the side where Dadan was. Opening his arms to tell her to jump down from the chair's arm at the other side.

"I guess your duty calls. Well, I'll see ya' later Newgate." She says as she transfers her feet to the other side and hops off the side of the chair and into Magra's arms. He catches her with ease and sets her down near her boots.

"Let's talk later Dadan. Get settled in and let's talk about that island you'd like to stay in."

"Yeah, but remember, I'm conquerin' a mountain."

"Yes, how could I forget. Mountain hag."

"Excuse me, it's BANDIT Hag to you." She says, threatening and stern. There was a beat of silence, then two. They burst out laughing at the whole exchange. She waves him off as she joins the rest of her family with Ace who was carrying most of their bags.

* * *

"He looks nice." Dogra says as he carries the bags, Ace leads him to the vacant Second Division Commander's room, as Marco had informed him they'll be staying there.

"Pops is great, I'll have to formally introduce you guys to him later." Ace adds, "Meanwhile, I'll be leaving Luffy to you guys. Commanders Vista or Haruta will be giving you guys a tour later on when you've settled down. And Makino-san…" Ace looks for Makino who was silently trailing behind them. She was carrying her own bags as well as memorizing her path.

"Yes Ace-san?"

"The fourth division would like to see you. Commander Thatch particularly wants you in his division if you're up for helping the guys at the kitchen." He adds, "Mikey and the others put in a good word for you and he just HAS to have you in his team, so he says."

Makino brightens. "Yes, I'd be happy to work in the kitchens until we find an island." She smiles. Although the smile didn't reach her eyes, Ace thought it was genuine. Dadan on the other hand, knew she was still thinking about what they talked about earlier. About finding her lover.

"Well, would you mind if I bring you to him after we drop off all the luggage? It gets hectic in the kitchens after a few hours, now would be the best time to see him."

"Can I come too Ace?" Luffy says from his back, limbs still tied around Ace, but this time, he was settled on his back, carried like a back pack while the rest of the luggage Ace carried in his arms. "I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry Lu." Ace says, "-but I can't bring you with me. I need to report to Pops and Marco afterwards."

"I could watch over him, Ace." Makino offers. "I'd like to go around the ship and explore a bit too; if that's alright with you."

"Ne, ne, I wanna explore too!" Luffy adds, "Haruta says we're friends, so I can find him and we can explore!"

"Luffy, Haruta is a commander. You've gotta show him a little more respect than that."

"Nah, he says to call him big brother Haruta, but I only wanna call him Haruta. So I'm calling him Haruta." Luffy says with finality, "And Ace, you're my only brother. My best brother." The little monkey says so sweetly as he tightens his arms around Ace. Ace could only stare as his heart clenches, very happy with Luffy's words.

"Damn it. You're just saying that. You said Sabo was the better brother."

"Nu-uh, I said he's the nicer brother."

"You better not take back the best brother title from me ya' hear. I'm your favorite older brother." Ace puffs his chest. Because at this point, he'd be lucky if Luffy didn't resent him for the Buster Call.

"I won't… unless you're mean to me." Luffy adds with a chuckle. Ace just rolls his eyes but smiles at him fondly.

"You are such a special kid Luffy." Ace ends up saying.

"I feel special because you guys are around." If Ace didn't know Luffy, he'd say he's just fooling them- trying to get to their good side so he can use them as he wants (mainly to get more meat he can eat), but this is Luffy, and Luffy means everything he says. The same Luffy who can't lie to save his life, and the very same little brother that loves Ace and the first person to really ever need him to be there for him. Luffy doesn't blame him for what happened to Dawn, neither did Makino, Magra and Dogra, but he still feels it's his fault but he doesn't regret living. He doesn't regret staying alive, because if he died Luffy would be alone and that would hurt worse than dying.

"Yeah, yeah." Ace doesn't show the smile on his face, but Luffy never really needed Ace to answer, he already knows how Ace feels.

Before they could get into the second division commander's rooms, they were intercepted by a different nurse with blonde hair

"Ah, Hanna-san." Ace greets the head nurse.

"Portagas, I heard from Commander Marco, is it true? Did your mother really eat the Pharma-pharma no mi?!" She asks, bordering hysterical. Something Ace was not used to seeing.

Dadan coughs to get their attention. "What do you want?" She says all too bluntly. It was only then that Hanna must have realized she was Ace's mother.

"Ah, Dadan-san! I heard from Commander Marco, you'll be under my supervision." She greets her respectfully, the smile on her lips still there.

"And I've told Ace to tell him I ain't gonna be studying medicine."

"No! I mean, yes, I heard… What I meant to say was I'll be supervising your medical needs during your stay here."

Dadan grumbles. "I don't need medical help. I have Magra and Dogra. And I'm not sick." She crosses her arms, wills herself not to scream. She isn't sick. Really, she isn't.

"I understand,- but…" Dadan storms past her before she could finish.

"I'm tired. Let us rest first before all that trouble." She sighs, exasperated, and walks past her, Magra and Dogra shuffle along to trail Dadan. Ace just watches, flabbergasted that Dadan was able to just push aside Hanna. Hanna-san! Of all people! The toughest nurse in the first division!

"Ah… Hanna-san?" Ace finds himself saying. He extends a hand to touch her shoulder, but she slaps it away instead as she'd always done. "Don't bother Portagas." She stares back at Dadan. "While she's a lot stubborn, she's still an elder," Hanna says it with a sigh. Not as excitable as she was when she entered. "I think I'm gonna have a lot to deal with in my hands."

"Yup. I feel sorry for you." Luffy says from behind Ace, still tied to his back. Luffy smiles as the blonde nurse gets taken aback by the sight of the boy, and the stretched limbs tied on Ace's torso. "Hi! I'm Monkey D. Luffy." He introduces himself. Making yet another friend in the large ship.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**That's it! THEY MEET! FINALLY! NOW I CAN WRITE THE GUSHY STUFF! YEAHHHHHH! XD XD XD XD XD**

**Guest: Thank you for the suggestion! THIS TIME WHITEBEARD AND DADAN MEET! How is it?! It's not like you've suggested, but I'd want to use that someday in other situations. :) Thank you for reading! XD**

**chibi-no-baka: Oh MY GOsh! You MIND Reader YOu! XD That's ALL I WANTED TO WRITE ABOUT! -The Similarities between them are many! In canon, their families are of no blood relation to them. They're both leaders of their groups of illegal activities. Their maternal/paternal instincts are like wolves on their cubs and they both love sake! XD That's the main reason why I wanna ship them together, but you'll have to know why I can't really ship-ship them. It will come later in the story. ;) Thanks for the review! I hope my writing is to your liking!**

**Shadow nao: Thank You!**

**Duchess: Actually, Dadan is the only one who can go toe-to-toe with Garp in a drinking contest. They'd both be flat out drunk like the one in the Episodes off Ace. -A lot of this fic is based on those few (but very heavy and content-filled) episodes. The character of Dadan and her bandits are really fleshed out there. :) Also, Dadan is the only one who has maternity rights on Ace, Sabo and Luffy. That's why Garp let Dadan punch him, because he knew she saw them as hers and Garp was there and why didn't he save Ace?! TT ^ TT -Well, thank you for reading!**

**Thanks to all my readers, reviewers and favers for bearing with my tardiness! I'll be sporadic posting between 1 week with 2K words or 2 weeks with 4K words. For a very strange reason, I can't get the word count to 5K... D: Is this what they call a limit?**


	18. I Won't Let You Go

**Surprise Surprise! Two chapters in one week!**

**I just got so excited I got to writing this! XD**

**Well, Enjoy the oldie's shinanigans!**

* * *

**Chapter 19**

It was at the early time of the morning when Dadan woke up.

She and Makino were given the bed, and Magra and Dogra were sleeping on the futons on the floor. Ace brought Luffy to sleep at his bunk at the shared quarters of his division.

The boys had been a flurry of activity during the day. So much so that a few daring crew members were actually sent flying over the rails of the ship due to Luffy's abilities. They chided him to show them his devil fruit powers to the point of making fun of the little rubber boy. They would later learn that rubber isn't the most useless devil fruit after all, especially when he wielder knows how to aim and is lucky, and is also a trouble magnet. Ace actually laughs at how his little brother was able to send a few guys overboard. He is clearly proud and happy to have his little brother close to him.

Makino had met the fourth division commander and had been given a tour of the kitchens as well as a set of uniforms and a note for the first division to give her a check-up and some hepatitis shots. She'd be good to work the next day as a trainee server during breakfast hours at 6 am, but Thatch had insisted she'd be there by 9 so that she can get more time to get comfortable.

Magra and Dogra, on the other hand, were the ones left to fix-up their things in the spacious Second Division Commander's room. The place was huge, but there were still some things they had to clean and stash away into closets, stuff which showed clear evidence that the room was once a storage room of some sort. And there was the issue of bedding and the bath for Dadan and Makino. There was a small restroom that came in the quarters, and they've all agreed that it's for the girl's use only. Dogra would be allowed, only if he really can't hold his food down, to use the toilet.

Oddly enough, this was the first time Dadan has seen Dogra sleep soundly while on the sea, less rocking on the larger ship compared to the little ones they've been on for the past few days… The more she thinks about it, isn't it close to a month now?

She looks outside the portholes, small round windows lined one part of the wall with an even 3 feet interval. They show only darkness and stars. At this point, Dadan lays back down on the bed, beside the steady rise and fall of Makino's breathing. She closes her eyes and waits for sleep to take her.

Only it doesn't.

A good half an hour later, she knows she isn't going back to sleep any time soon. So she gets up and out of bed, maybe a little trip to the kitchens wouldn't be so bad.

She doesn't bother changing into casual wear, as her nightgown was thick and heavy enough for whatever is outside. Instead, she grabs a shawl to put over her shoulders and slips into her socks and boots.

For a woman who's been rather large her whole life, her footsteps were surprisingly silent, light-footed feet she'd gotten off years of hunting in the mountains. When she reaches the door, she turns back to see everyone was asleep. She breathes in relief as she opens the door to go outside.

The hall's temperature was colder than the room's. There was an odd crispness to the air that made her wonder what the smell of the midnight sea would be like from the deck. So she walks the other way, up the stairs until she reaches the deck. There was a light from the crow's nest that shone down at her. She waves at it, so that the watchman on duty can know it was her. The light moves away as it continues to scan the ocean around them. The moon was half full and the light it cast on them gave off a somber glow still. The ocean around them reflected little light on the surface, just enough for Dadan to see the vastness of the ocean and the thin line between the sea and the sky.

She walks instead to the nearest rails closer to the main mast of the ship. The ship was on a slow pace to the next destination, the waves barely made the ship rock, and when she looked down into the ocean, she could still see the little indents the waves made when they push against the boat, only to be pushed away into a fine rippling pattern at the back of the ship.

She likes the pattern, she realizes, and decides to lounge on the rail as she looks down at the ocean. She places a fist on her cheek as her elbow rests on the wooden rail.

The silence lasts for 10 minutes until someone joins at her side.

"It's funny to see you out here so early Bandit hag." No other than Edward Newgate says as he uses his IV stand as a walking stick. She wasn't surprised, as the rolling of the stand had given her a fair warning that someone was behind her.

"The same can be said for you Newgate." She adds, "Can't sleep?" More of a question for him than an explanation for herself.

"Nah, I wake up this early most mornings. The only time I can go out for myself is when the nurses gets too tired."

"Sneaking around on your own ship, are we?" Dadan smiles, cheeky. "Oh the life of an old pirate captain with so many overbearing sons and nurses." She adds in her own dramatics "Why, the old man can't even go out on a walk until the nurses fall asleep due to his oldness."

"That makes no sense Dadan." Newgate chuckles as he stands beside her.

"It makes perfect sense." Dadan looks back out at the sea. "It means you're well cared for and obviously loved and doted on like a baby." She says it like its the usual. The norm. "Lucky boring old man." She adds with a grumble under her breath.

True to her mind, it's normal to have so many people love you when you reach a certain age. A man like Newgate, she'd expect a thousand people who likes, loves and respects him. He's been out there in the ocean for a long time, and he'd have met millions of people in his lifetime. -Dadan on the other hand, had been stuck at Mt. Corvo for a long time, almost of the most of her life. The few she'd met, she'd turned into her family, and to her, that was already such an accomplishment compared to the others.

"You're only saying that because you like watching me suffer." Newgate pouts. "Being smothered in their love sounds more appealing when they let me drink and eat what I want." his only complaint.

Truly, Whitebeard loves the crew he's built, the family he'd made. It's just that… they're too controlling of the things he can and cannot do. He knows it's for his good, but there are just some things that seem more like a drag to obey the older he gets.

"Sometimes I wonder if getting older is worse than dying young…" He sighs "Like Roger."

"Well, that guy didn't see his son grow-up." Dadan elbows his leg (the closest thing to her height), hard. "You just choose the worst person to compare yourself with, ya' know that?"

"I don't- Ok. I get your point." Because Gol D. Roger is probably the most reckless father he's known. Legend or no legend, that guy could have chosen his family over his supposed legacy. He could have died with his family instead of bringing about the golden age of piracy, but nope. He just had to have the last laugh.

Whitebeard, for his part, understood and accepted Roger's decision. Of course, he wouldn't disclose the location of his lover to his rival. They were friends sure, but they were rivals too, and Newgate was more comfortable not having a step over Roger when innocent lives were involved.

He did however admit, he regretted not knowing about Ace…

"You know, when I heard the marines were killing Roger's possible children, I thought they'd have succeeded."

The chill of the early morning suddenly bites Dadan's cheek like a slap. It was numbing, cold and biting. She hikes the shawl higher up until she covers her neck. "You thought wrong." The only thing she'd said. The quiet of the morning at sea was much more silent than she'd wished for at the moment.

She was by no means uncomfortable about Ace's heritage. She was scared, yes, but she couldn't avoid talking about this to Newgate anyway. There were a lot of things that happened. A lot of things she didn't know had happened, except that the Pirate King was executed at Louge Town at East Blue. Prior to that, she'd only ever read the newspapers form the East Blue and not the Grand Line… She never even thought she'd ever live to sail in it, or survive entering it without losing a limb. Now she wishes she'd actually taken time reading the Grandline newspapers too.

"I didn't think Garp would be brave enough to do that… I guess Roger was wiser to trust in the man than I ever was."

"Believe me, Garp would have done the thing he wanted. There's two thin's he's good at and that's fighting' and bein' stubborn. Raisin' kids- even his own, no. They turn way-ward. They grow-up quick and rebellious; and as competent and stubborn as he is." Dadan rants. "And he won't let us make their lives easier either. It's always tough love on them or else face his fist! That stupid old man, keeps on making kids the damn family can't even raise and passing it off on poor bandit women like me."

"I could imagine." He could not. Despite having many adopted sons, he's actually never raised a child from a younger age before.

"Ha! Ya' think yer' dealin' with the worst. Le' me tell ya they were worse as kids the size of gremlins. Babies are different from these things. Babies cry, and they dun' tell what they want. But Babies are cute. They're ugly, yeah, but they're better than lookin' at dirty trouble makers bringing' ya trouble, that's what."

"I'm guessing Ace kept on bringing you trouble." He smiles as she huffs and groans, scratches her head and upturns her chin sharply. He could almost feel her frustration at the things going on in her mind.

"Ya' don't know the half of the things he brought home." The most shocking to her heart being another brat with blonde hair. "He's like a wild animal."

"I'm glad you indulged him." Newgate leans on the rails, lower than him and higher than Dadan. "You've done well." He says with the all too sincere smile. The warm smile she'd only imagined as she looks at the den-den mushi every time they talk. The snail gave no justice to just how happy he looked with that smile. How natural it was for him to smile so fondly at people.

Dadan could feel her blush creep up her cheeks. She turns away to hide it. "It's nothing special." She says. But she turns to look at him, still smiling that warm doppey smile. And she panics. So she pushes him away, pushes his face away more accurately. "Stop smiling like that. People will get ideas you actually like them." She says jokingly with a fuss, but she was guarded. "Honestly, yer' sending the wrong idea, it's almost creepy."

"Haha, don't worry. I'm only doing this to you because we're on the same page half the time. You're more like an old friend than a love interest at this point." He laughs. "And we're too old for that kind of thing anyway."

"Ouch, that actually kind o' stings Newgate." Dadan adds, the atmosphere returning to something more comfortable. Something more teasing and fun between the two of them. "I'd like to think I'm a little bit younger than my actual age ya' know."

"Ah, you mean 60?"

"I'm only 52 ya' idiot!" She glares, baring sharp teeth and an annoyed expression. Newgate thinks she looked like an orange cat with sharp teeth and claws. The sight only made him laugh at her. "Stop laughing! I mean it Newgate! Hey!" She starts to ball her hands into fist and starts to hit his side and arm resting on the rail. That doesn't do much of anything, and the large captain just laughs at her little kitten punches.

"Gurarara! You're adorable." He ends up slipping. "Shut up!" Dadan blushes redder.

The twilight approaches as it colors the sky into laters of pink and purple hues. The Dawn was greeted by two laughing seniors on the deck. The night watch seems to have turned off the light and was now staring at the two elders on deck. Watching intently and amusedly as the two bicker and tease.

The early members of the crew get a glimpse of them taking their morning stroll on the deck of Moby Dick before Dadan excuses herself to go back and get changed. The nurse seems to have woken up and was now fussing over the Captain's tubes and condition. Requesting he goes back to his room to take a rest and get his blood pressure read.

Dadan waves at him before she gets back down to the hull. He waves back lazily before he gets lead back to his quarters at the other side of the deck.

All the while, the early risers were smiling as they watched the back of Ace's mother and their Captain's back retreat to their rooms. Suddenly, they were more interested to know the gossip around the woman they were told they could only call by Dadan-san.

* * *

At around afternoon, Dadan had managed to score herself some sake after some dramatic pleading that she was getting cold and that she needs some to last her through the cold ocean night. The chefs stood no chance! Those soft-hearted kids were easy prey.

She decided to get a first sip straight from the bottle, so she took off the cork and drank. The sake was so good, she was speechless. Literally speechless. Her tastebuds were floating in heaven with the rich after taste that was so sweet and mellow on her tongue and smooth down her throat! The sake really hit the spot and made her warmer than the sake in her previous stash could ever. This was too good to drink alone, she thought. But she drank again with good thoughts in mind. Now she just had to find a way to smuggle this past the nurses and the Pheonix.

So there she is, rolling along a small tea set to Newgate's chair. Two small teacups and the tea kettle with the warm brewed "tea" on a silver tea platter. The tea bag string hanging on the outside was a dud, with no teabag at the bottom. She had some crackers with her on the side, the healthy ones that Thatch said was "good for their digestion".

The nurses and Marco didn't even bat an eye when Dadan sat down to have tea with their captain, slowly getting more familiar with her presence around him.

Newgate raised a brow at first of course. But then she poured the tea and gave it to him, he instantly knew that aroma. He smiles, like a devious child who snuck something past his guardians.

"How's the _tea_ Newgate?" Dadan asks aloud. Asking it so casually with a smile. "One of the sea cooks gave it to me. Something about white blossom _tea_."

"Yes, I'm familiar with this scent. The **_tea_** is mildly fragrant, very soothing." He plays the game, modulating his voice enough for the crew on deck to hear.

"Yeah, it's kinda sweet for a flower _tea_. I was expectin' it to be bitter and stuff, like the ones I had at home."

"Well, not all flower teas are bitter Dadan. There are those that came from sweet plants from West Blue and North Blue. They produce sweet blooms used for making _tea_ like these." Newgate takes another sip. "Ah…" He adds. "This is very good _**tea**._ Thank my sons from the 4th division for me, and thank you for sharing your _tea_ Dadan."

"Yeah, I'm just doin' this to show ya my goodwill and all that. Not cuz ya' asked me or anything."

"Ah, that. I should invite you over for _tea _more often." He wiggles his brows, it was funny enough for Dadan to reach across and give him a weak slap on the arm while hiding a smile behind her other hand. The scene seems to have the nurses gushing from the back of Pop's chair, nearer the machines his tubes were attached to.

Marco eyes them, suspicious of the tea they were drinking, and why they were saying tea like it was a joke between them. But they were smiling and talking, and the warm tea was making their cheeks red. Or maybe it was their teasing and prodding that was making them flush. Either way, Marco thinks nothing completely off about the scene. Rather, it makes him smile at them, glad that Pops was happy about drinking something other than sake for once.

Marco shrugs the paranoia off. It must be an inside joke for them or some old-folks jab they've managed to talk about over the den-den mushi.

They drink their tea and eat their crackers. Although Dadan had mentioned the crackers being bland and almost tasteless, Newgate had countered it had an adequate texture.

"Then I'm calling these adekwait crackers," Dadan says as she munches on them. "Gotta be honest with ya', I dunno' what that word means."

"Gurarara! I'd like ta tell ya what it means Dadan," he takes a breath, "-but I don't know what it means either. Something about it being good enough. I dunno, just picked it off-of the nurses."

"Ah, so adekwait means good enough, just fancier soundin'." She adds "Ya' sure that's the meaning? Cuz I'm planning' to use that on Ma-chan later."

"I wouldn't use it before we figure out what it actually means. We should read a book." Newgate adds. "Let's do this again tomorrow, but I'll get Izo to bring me that dictionary from the library. I'm sure no one's using it anyway."

"Ah, yeah, why not. I'll get some _tea _from the boys at the kitchens too. And maybe more of these crackers of somethin' to snack on."

"That would be nice, but no pressure. The fourth division could be busy tomorrow. If that happens, I'm granting you permission to choose any _tea_ you'd like to try." He says. "Tell them it's captain's orders to be hospitable to our guests."

"Sure. I'll tell those boys in the ah- kitchen division." She says, because she still isn't so familiar with the divisions and the numbers. So she's been more direct about who gave what to her and from which room she got it from. "So, see ya'?"

"Yes. I'll see you later Dadan." He waves as she takes the tea set and rolls it out with her. She gives one final wave before she enters the mess hall.

Marco approaches to check-up on his Pops. "Ok Pops, time to get your blood pressure checked. Then you'll be fasting tonight so we can check your blood and urine tomorrow."

Whitebeard grumbles, completely forgetting about the PE but sighs in acceptance. "Alright, son. But first. Can I get a bottle of water? I can still taste the adequate crackers." Marco gets a whiff of his breath, the semi-sweet aroma of the "tea" smelled so much like a familiar drink… a drink that wasn't at all tea. Yet the cinnamon on the dubbed adequate crackers was masking the familiar aroma. Maybe- the cinnamon was altering the smell of it? -Marco thinks as he supervises the nurses' work on taking the blood pressure.

"Sure Pops." Marco smiles as he goes to get his captain a bottle of water. The thought was easily forgotten in favor of the new task.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**OMG! I AM LOVING THIS! XD THEY FINALLY MEET! AND THEY HAVE THEIR OWN SHINANIGANS! XD Sorry if I'm not writing much into Luffy and Ace. I believe there's a lot of those kinds of fics out ther**e,,**, so I'll be writing more on Dadan and Whitebeard! While the children play, the adults are also playing their own game! XD**

**Guest: It's ok, you don't have an account so you aren't notified to your faved fics like account holders are! There's more! And I'm so inspired to write WBXDadan that I ended up writing my heart out! XD XD XD Thank you for still reading this! It took 18 Chapters before they meet and I was so impatient then, but now that they are I'm so happy they're in one boat! XD XD XD **

**So now I'm gonna be more and more creative and figure out how to smuggle more sake to Pops because Marco's bound to figure that out sooner or later.**


	19. We're Perfect Together (Or So They Say)

**Rating Change! **

**So This chapter is turning into rated M for mentions of sexual activities.**

**Nothing really happens and everything is obviously a joke, **

**but just to make sure innocent Luffy-like kids don't read this chapter...**

**Kids below 18 are requested not to read this chapter. **

**S****kip to the next, I promise the next one is clean.**

**This chapter is only a filler. **

**Nothing major to the story line.**

**:) B) XD**

**So unless you're 18 n' up, Enjoy!**

**And if you are curious and the young-lings do some reading, until the part where Luffy leaves is ok. **

**But Really, don't read past that.**

* * *

**Chapter 20**

It was Thatch who first pointed it out to Ace.

"Pops looks better." He says with not much thought as he stares across the deck. "And for once, he doesn't have a bottle of alcohol in his hands. Aren't we nearing a winter island?"

"Yeah, he's occupied by Dadan." Ace adds as he heaves over a large roll of rope from the rigging.

"On his lap?" Thatch points out. Dadan was sitting on Pop's lap, using his torso as a back rest as she stretches her legs with his thigh.

"She gets cold easily."

"Why not warm up at the mess?"

"She thinks it's rude to the host to leave him alone or not invite him inside. I don't know. It's a house bandit thing."

"Do bandits even have manners?" He pauses to add another question "What's a house bandit?"

"No, no we don't." Dogra pipes up from the side. Thatch almost falls over the barrel he was sitting on. "Boss has her own rules tho. She's the bandit boss, and whoever enters her turf is under her care. She's usually the one taking care of guests who enters the base. Keeps an eye on supplies and stuff if they steal anythin'. She's a house bandit." He explains as Thatch just looks over at him.

Ace adds, "Usually, the guests just barge in like the hut's their home. Dadan deals with the worse house gets. House bandits guard the base and stuff. Like- like a house keeper." Ace tries to explain. "But has the highest authority."

"Isn't Pops-"

"Nah, Dadan thinks he's a good guy. Better than most guests." This time Thatch really almost fell from his seat after getting startled by the voice at his other side. Thatch didn't even ask his question yet… 'Isn't Pops the host?' Was left unsaid.

"And she likes talking to him. He tells good stories, or so she says." The other bandit, the one who looks like a rooster adds. He'd been looking over her for the past few days they've been onboard. They were not the type to blend in easily in their surrounding, with such impressive features and bright colors - very different from the picture of mountain bandits that he's familiar with.

However, they were considerably good at stealth. A skill that Thatch could almost say he was envious of with the number of times they've snuck up on him and the other pirates. Their presences were so well hidden, they wondered if they've secretly learned haki to mask their presence.

"Well,-" Thatch fixes himself on the barrel. "Whatever she's doing, she should keep it up. Pops looks like he's turning younger."

"He's turning better." Ace corrects as he works with fixing the ropes into a neat ring. "Marco says the company is good for him and the diet and curfew is working." Ace explains.

Thatch rolls his eyes, disbelieving. "Well, sure, but diet and curfew never worked before Dadan-san came."

"That's because he was being difficult before the diet and curfew."

"And he isn't now?"

"Well- Dadan helps. She's drinking tea with him instead of alcohol. She talks to him before they sleep. They do stuff that actually makes them tired." He says it so casually, Thatch just gapes at his obliviousness. It sounds more like they were a couple. "They're close friends and they're like rivals too. You know, trying to out "better" each other."

Thatch wants to groan, wants to plant his face in his palms and weep. He wants to tear his face off with his hands, and crawl in his bed and never wake up. Is Ace so oblivious that he can't even see the fondness in Pop's eyes, and the love in hers? Is he so clueless that he would ignore the teasing touches and the hidden messages behind them? Is his brother so innocent that he can't see the tension between them?! Like a forbidden love story that can't possibly end well unless they do something about it?! Unless _**he**_ does something about it!

For a moment, he thinks about all the bad things that could happen should he meddle with their relationship… but they were clearly not going to move forward if this is all there is. And Ace not being able to see it means they aren't showing it enough! They need more action! And Ace needs a mentor to teach him! Well, no one else is gonna set it straight with Ace and the whole crew than him, so this time he'll teach his little brothers the art of la amore! And the best way to teach them is by working on Pops and Dadan!

Feeling his confidence restored and his purpose renewed, Thatch puffs his chest and dones on his smile. He will make them realize! He says to himself. The power of love is the mightiest!

Thatch returns to the present and talks to Ace, smile on his face and words at the tip of his tounge like a prophet of Eros. "Or Pops could be in-looove." Thatch wiggles his brows and sings his words in the annoying way that he does when he's teasing.

Ace just stares at him, disgusted. "Ew, no. Pops is not in love. He's just- enjoying himself in the company of an old hag."

"An old hag who's sitting on his lap and reading a book to him! This is so romantic, I don't even understand how you can't see it!"

"I don't see it because it's not there." Ace huffs, "Theres no romance Thatch. Those two are just friends. Go ahead and ask them." Thatch makes that face where he looks like he's been personally bastardized.

"Are you crazy? That's like a question you don't ask out of the blue. It's- it's like a taboo question on relationships. If we ask them now, and one of them disproves it this early, the whole relationship building that's been happening could collapse and ruin everything!" Thatch explains, because that obviously happens in real life.

Ace raises a brow. Totally not believing it. "Then how do you know what they are to each other?"

"Ace my dear baby brother." Thatch grabs Ace by his shoulders as he looks him dead in the eye. "You know what they are by looking a them. That's what. You determine what they are by their chemistry. You undestand their chemistry by observing their reactions." Thatch states.

It was definitely the worst time for Izou, Haruta and Luffy to step in on the conversation. Thatch notices that the two bandits were no where to be seen.

"What's he talking about this time?" Izo asks dryly, as if knowing Thatch was spouting more nonsense. Thatch rolls his eyes at the cross dresser.

"Thatch is telling me something about chemistry and Pops and Dadan." Ace explains. "We're observing the chemical reaction."

Izou and Haruta's interests were piqued, by the way their brows shot up and their eyes landed on the scene at the other side of the ship. Dadan on Newgate's lap, as she was reading a book to him while he reclines on his chair, looking over her shoulder to read the book as well.

"That's a very mild reaction on Pop's part." Izo comments. "He's got the girl on his lap, and nothing!"

"Yeah. It's more like a father-daughter thing right now. He's teaching her to read?" Haruta adds, "That's really not much of a reaction from Pops." The statement makes Thatch pout.

"Hold up, they're talking to each other. Pops is pouting at something she's saying. She's pointing to the book." Haruta narrates. "Pops must have said something because she's reacting violently!"

"Weak punches aren't very violent." Luffy adds his part. "Ah, Dadan's mad."

"What is she saying to him?" Because Izo could not hear her from all the way across the deck.

"I can read lips." Haruta chimes, "She saying something- stop- being- a pervert." The pirates gasps in shock, Thatch visibly going red. "Oh Pops doesn't dally." Thatch adds from the side.

Ace just stares at them, totally skeptical of Haruta's lip reading abilities. "I don't believe you guys." He continues to_ "observe"_ the two. And while Dadan does exhibit her usual reactions to almost everything, Pops really wasn't doing anything that could warrant him a pervert. In fact, Pops was his usual self, and both his hands were visible, one catching his cheek and the other on the arm rest. That however, doesn't stop Haruta from lip reading.

"We- can stop by- the island… just us two -a frisk. What do you say!" Haruta squeals. "They're going on a date and Pops is gonna fu- oh wait Ace! I could be wrong on the last part" By this time, there was a steadily forming group of people around them. Ace's glare looks like he could murder somebody as he covered Luffy's ears. Arousing the suspicion of the captain and his visitor.

Dadan waves at them from across the deck. Luffy waves back, and flashes her an ok sign with a very Luffy smile. Dadan visibly hurumps and goes back to reading her book a loud to Newgate.

The captain on the other hand, looks up to the perching pheonix on the mast and looks back down on the group on deck. Well, if Marco isn't moving, it mustn't be that serious, he thinks.

And the day resumes. Dadan reading the sake book (one of Whitebeard's favorite books). On a page about one especially fermented and brewed sake that was in a risqué packaging. One she thinks he's a pervert for liking. And the one he says is available in the next island they'll be stoping by, and if they'd want to buy a flask, just for the two of them.

"Ya' know, sure, why not. But We'll need to hide it from the kids."

From across the deck, Haruta lip reads. "-But -hide from the kids! -No way! They really are up to something!" Ace's shoulders were literally on fire now.

"I don't need to know this. I'm taking Luffy and we're going back to sleep. This is a nightmare and we're still in the coot."

"Eh, but we had breakfast this morning." Luffy questions, tilts his head "Did we dream that too Ace?"

"Yes, yes we did Luf-… And we'll never talk about this again." He says as he picks up his brother to toss him over one shoulder (now rid of flames). He takes the rolled rope and hands it over to Thatch. "You started this so it's your fault." He says.

"Ace! No! I have kitchen duty in an hour!"

"My shift ends in an hour. Take responsibility Commander!" He waves off. "-For talking shit in front of my innocent baby brother."

**— Back Out Now Kids. It only Gets Worse From Here —**

On the other side of the deck, Dadan and Newgate continues to make plans. "And we can have a picnic on the island. I know a spot with a great view, where no one can see us drinking. We'll have fun outdoors and a sense of privacy."

Haruta reads "-And we can have a -pink ink island. -I know a spot in you, -where no one's been dunking. -We'll have fun outdoors- and a sensual privy!" The petite commander squeals. The whole sentence may not have made much sense, but the crew were under the impression they were using some kind of old people slang. And if it sounds as sensual as they think it is, then Pops must be laying on the charm!

"What's pink ink island?" Izo asks, but was promptly ignored by the rest of the crew as they talk about how much of a man their Pops is for getting it down with such a swell lady like Dadan.

Up above them, Marco chokes. Or is laughing? Heck, Whitebeard wasn't sure. Just that Marco was acting strange. Like he ate some bad fish and is trying to spit it out back from his throat.

Whitebeard looks up at him, concerned. Marco just waves a wing, all under control, he says.

**— I Warned You —**

The captain still looks at the Phoenix with uncertainty, but gets distracted by the next page of the book. Another special sake in the island, one that comes in a bottle for a man his size and could only be bough in a very large bottle as big as his arm. He explains to Dadan as he gives a visual estimate using his actual arm, and forms the size of the bottle neck as he forms his hand into a semi circle. -And while this was all a good fun time for the two seniors, the crew had other ides of what he was giving an estimate of.

On the other side, the group gasps! "Oh God! Pops is packing!" Thatch's comment. "Can that even fit her?" One from the gathered crew asks. "He's the size of an elephant's trunk, that girth is thick too!" Haruta reads their lips some more.

"-Do you think -you can -take on the challenge?" Pops asks.

"-Do you think me -a beginner." Haruta gasps. "Ahhhh! She's a size queen!" Someone comments.

"-Well, what have -you taken on?" Whitebeard refers to the East Blue Sake of course. The others however-

"-I don't get good ones much, -just the ones -Garp brings over." Dadan answers, which in the real pervert's minds translates to "She's had an orgy with Marines! AND WITH GARP THE FIST!" Holy shit!

Pops laughs, loud and unabashed. "-We'll see. -This is pretty -hard stuff." Haruta reads. At this point, the men on the circle were turning a bright flush of red. Then Whitebeard follow with- "-said to bring a man to heaven -and back." Which in the other's minds translates to "Pops had fucked guys before?! No way!"

"How much is a bottle o' this anyway?" Dadan asks as she brings the book closer to her face, obscuring her lips, hence there was no reading from Haruta. But the captain answers her, and he said-

"-Enough to leave you broke." Haruta reads, "He's gonna fuck her hard till she's broken!" Haruta screams.

"Someone tell her the physical impossibility! Please!" Someone comments. "She can't possibly take him!"

"Somebody stop them! He's too big!" Someone from the crew panics. "We gotta tell Ace."

"No! No we don't! Ace just started trusting us. If he finds out Pops is gonna- uh… Do that to his mom, he's gonna pull back again!" Izo reasons.

That's when Marco chooses the perfect time to fall from the mast, landing flat on the deck on his bird back, making a weird choking sqwaking noise that is definitely laughing and not choking and dying ("Oh my god! He's dying!" Thatch's reaction). Marco laughs, while the rest of the crew worries about him.

"Marco!" Thatch exclaims "Speak to me Marco, are you gonna turn to ashes and be reborn into a baby Phoenix?!" Which coming from Thatch, was said like it will actually happen and Marco does enter the stage of rebirth that way (which he does not, Marco will remind him later).

The bird continues to sqwack until Pops makes his way to the crowd. Dadan and Nurse Hanna behind him, still carrying the book.

"Marco, son. What's wrong?" He's asked in concern.

Marco calms himself down. Reverts back into a man and said in his calmest, most disinterested serious big brother voice "Ah nothing, I just remembered a joke." He said with a straight face while he wipes a tear from his eye. (His lips weren't even twitching into a smile).

Everyone just face plants the floor.

"Geeze, what's wrong with you?! I really thought you were dying!" Thatch scolds as he cuffs Marco a the back of his head. Which Marco just dodges.

"Eh, nothing. Nothing…" Marco directs his attention to his Captain. "Pops, what were you and Dadan talking about?" He asks instead.

"Nothing son. Just about the next island we'll be visiting." Whitebeard confesses. "And places to sight see, nothing much else."

"Are you sure Oyaji?" Marco eyes him with that straight face. "Because we're getting _'ideas'_ of our own too -for the next island."

"Oh?" He questions. "Like what?"

"The usual. Supplies, scouting, inn reservations…" Marco pauses, but looks up to his Father for the last part. "Who will be your physicians on duty when everyone heads for land."

"Ah that. Well, Dadan and I were planning to have a picnic on shore. Just a simple basket and sa- **_tea_**. Nothing too dangerous for my health. hehe" He laughs weakly. But the searching gaze of Marco made him incredibly uncomfortable. So his eyes diverts to Dadan and Hanna, the nurse who was also assisting her.

It was Hanna who points it out. "Is that the world almanac for the best sake in the world Dadan-san?"

Dadan panics, but still keeps the book close to her chest. "Ah, yeah -yeah. What's it to ya' punk?" She answers as she usually does.

"Ah, so that's what's hard." One of the 'bright-er' members of the group connects the conversation. And points out Commander Haruta's good lip reading skills. "Wha, and they were talking about the Giant Peach Bran Sake. The one that came in a bottle as big as Pop's arm, remember."

"So that's what it was about!" Everyone in the green minded group finally connected the dots. "That thing brught me to heaven then, I woke up in hell the next day."

"Did I miss something here?" Whitebeard asks. Still clueless to what they were thinking about.

"Uh! Nothing Pops! All's well here! We weren't thinking anything at all!" Haruta says with a laugh.

"You weren't _thinking_ **at all**, period." Marco comments as he sighs, but he smiles. And oh, Thatch is gonna prank him. Damn Marco, making them feel like idiots. Thatch is going to prank him, and prank him good.

Later, Ace and Luffy wakes up past noon, asking for breakfast.

"So, what did I miss?" Ace asks Haruta and Izou. He was scarfing down his third tray of "_breakfast_" and Luffy his fifth tray when Ace decided he should ask about his nightmares coming true.

"Nothing." Izou states as he drinks his drink. "Nothing at all." Haruta follows.

Across the mess, Marco reads a report with a wide smile on his face. One that takes Ace's attention.

"Anyone knows what's got Marco so happy?" Ace asks out of blatant concern for his safety. A happy Marco is an endangered specie Marco.

"That shitty bird was above us the whole time!" Haruta hisses.

"Oh he's roasted turkey now." Izou follows.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**I LOVE THIS CHAPTER! XD My best one yet!**

**So there are special jokes I'd love to include, but I can't anymore for reasons.**

**"I'm down for getting wasted." Says Dadan, "Just as long as I'm spending down time on shore." -And to the group of tuning-in pirates: "Damn, already talking about conditions and after care! Oh she wants him bad!"**

**"How'd you want yours?" Newgate refers to sake. Dadan thinks it through and responds. "I'd like to drink it while it's hot." -And the shitty pirates would think "she likes to suck cock and drink jizz! She's gonna suck him dry!"**

**"So, you want it flavored or not?" -The pirates be like "The condom?"; And "How many should we bring?" Dadan refers to the food. "Ah, just pack a dozen (crackers) or so. For good measure." -The pirates be like "How are you this active old man?!"**

**I'm friggin' done! No more of this green minded stuff. From here on out, I'm gonna return to rate T+. XD Just wanted to write this down because THIS IS WHAT I WANTED TO WRITE ABOUT! XD XD XD But I suck at straight NSWF so I'm writing comedies. Here's a comedy! XD**

**No Review responses this time,,, because I made 17 below not read. It won't be fair. :)**


	20. Making Convenient Excuses

**Chapter 21**

"No Dadan-san. Anti-biotics are not magical all cures." Sarah corrects her as she treats a pirate on the bed. Sarah was still cleaning the wound for dressing when Dadan mentioned just giving him some antibiotics. Sarah would like to explain **Anti-biotics WON'T SOLVE EVERYTHING**.

"But that's what I use to cure Ace and Luffy when they get the high fevers," Dadan states, more of a confession now than anything.

"Then they are lucky they aren't dead yet." Nurse Gina says as she treats her patient on the other bed, groaning in pain from the force of her hand. Dadan stares at the pirate and tells him to suck it up.

Dadan can't spend all her time with Newgate, contrary to what everyone is saying. She needs time for herself, and Newgate is the captain and he needs time for himself and his crew. So during her free time, she'd either be found in the infirmary or in the mess hall with Makino and other pirates.

Today was an infirmary day. A very busy infirmary day. A while ago, a fight broke out between a rookie crew that wanted to challenge them.

Dadan would like to say they didn't stand a chance, but as it is, the Whitebeards were careless; and so a few of these overconfident men ended up getting bombed and wounded, and were sent to the infirmary to face the wrath of the nurses.

"Dadan-san. Please don't touch those." Hanna, also working in the infirmary that day, tells her to keep her hands off sterilized tools. No, we don't care that your hands are not dirty, just don't touch them.

"Dadan-san, please don't-"

"Dadan-san, could you move to-"

"Dadan-san!"

After the -enth scolding that hour, Dadan had had enough. "Yeah yeah, I get it. I'm in the way. I'm going."

"Dadan-san! Don't go out!" One of the nurses said too late.

Because behind the door, the fight was still happening. And oddly enough, Dadan just looks at the entire scene and sighs.

She thinks to herself, 'well, this is better than the infirmary'.

So she stepped out and closed the door behind her. She hadn't even taken a step forward when a knife zips its way past her head, only for her to narrowly avoid it with a shocked face as it embedded into the back of the infirmary door, aimed at what could have been her head.

Out of habit, she grabbed the knife and pulled it out of the wood. "Who fuckin' threw that ya' retards!" She screamed as she threw the knife back to where she assumed it came from.

Dadan was an unlucky woman by nature. Unlucky being a loose term. Sometimes her unluckiness was a good thing, but most of the time it was bad; however, there was that grey area where she really cannot determine if she was ever lucky or unlucky.

That was the situation now.

Imagine, to her surprise, the knife she'd thrown ended up hitting the rival captain's purple beard, effectively cutting off a large chunk of it as the hair and accessory gently falls to the floor with a soft thud. The knife embeds itself on the Captain's fatty gut, but that wasn't enough to keep him down it seems, as he easily pulled the knife off himself.

The whole deck watched the scene unfold. The Purple beard Pirates all look to be in horror and shock as they stare down at the chunk of purple facial hair on the deck.

The rival captain, Purple beard, was speechless. He was shocked at first, but Dadan saw the color of his face transition from pale white to livid bright red. She sees him grind his teeth and curl his brows, and she knows- she's screwed.

"Get her!" The purple bearded man points his sword to the woman across the deck.

"Dadan!" Ace screams as he burns the enemy around him to get to her as quickly as he can. Ace barks out orders. "Get her out of here!"

"Ya' shits think you can take me on, huh?" Dadan screams and dodges backward when the men from the enemy group attack her. She looks around and spots a discarded ax just conveniently lying around. It wasn't like her ax at all, as it was more decorated with heavy spikes at the back of the ax head. None the less, she picked it up and with all her might, she swung.

The ax broke.

The head fell from the handle and she ended up swinging the handle alone as the ax head flew off to hit an enemy pirate, giving him a great injury. The handle, now a staff, she swung wide, low and hard enough to take 5 men down by their shins and knees.

And since she over swung, she also ended up on her butt -but was actually for the better because someone who snuck behind her would have sliced her head off with a sword if she hadn't fallen.

All of a sudden, an earthquake happened, and everyone was down to their knees.

At the very back of the deck, there stood the man who grips the air and pulls it with one hand. The earth tethers left and right. And Dadan stared in awe. The clouds darkened above them, bringing forth the clouds for a storm, but not a drop spills from the angry grey clouds. The wind, a treacherous blow, strong and hard on those who held onto nothing.

Dadan sees a knife on the floor, she takes it and stabs it on the floor of the deck. She held it tight, her only hold to the ship.

The Whitebeards, it seems, were trained in such a situation, the commanders barely even budged from the places they stood, and the rest were already holding on a railing. The man adjusts his hold on the air, grips it tighter like an ordinary man would grip a blanket. The earth answers his will as the sea rocks at his command. Then, he ripples it in a wide ark to his knee, and obediently, the oceans rose to his call.

The waves growing only bigger and larger; engulfed the enemies' ship in one large cover. The men still on board screamed as they were covered by the shadow of the wave. The darkness under the tunnel. The light they will never see again.

And just like that, they were devoured. The ship of the Purple beard Pirates will no longer sail the sea. It had fallen prey to the monstrous waves, sunken by the ocean itself, all by the calling of one man. Edward Newgate. -Whitebeard.

"Pops!" Marco calls to his captain.

"The fight is over," Newgate calls. "You, Purple brats, surrender now and we might just spare ye'."

"Over my dead body!" Purple beard yells. His men were split between surrendering and following their captain.

"Get her!" The purple bearded captain points to the orange-haired woman, "I'll at least get to kill her for cutting my beard!"

"In your dreams brat!" Dadan yells. "Dogra, now!"

And suddenly a Bandit comes flying from the mast. The rope tied loosely to his middle and between the legs. On his other hand a saber, long and sharp. The purple bearded captain never saw him coming till it was too late. The saber pierced the side of his arm, though the muscle and into the side of his rib cage; as the force from the bandit sent him back and over the rail of the Moby.

The loud splash of the fallen body was heard from the deck, and almost instantly, some from the Purple beard pirates let go of their weapons in surrender.

Dadan gets to her feet as Dogra jumps from his rope and gets back on deck.

"All ya' brats, drop yer weapons n' scram," Dadan says as she looks menacingly on the defeated crew. No one moved, still shocked to see their captain fall from the ship. But Dadan knows it only takes a while for the shock to last, soon there would be anger, and someone would attack her or Dogra as a retort. She had to act now before someone does slit her throat. So her glare intensifies, and with her voice more gravely she growls, "Those who don't jump now walks the plank with chains on their legs." She threatens, but the ones on deck were still wary, still doubting the lady's guts. She thinks, they were underestimating her.

She spots a pistol just a pace away from her. She walks to it and snatches it from the ground. She cocks the safety and fires one shot into the air and instantly reloads and points it at them with practiced ease; and like a bell's toll, the beaten pirates move. Like a herd of scurrying rats, they jump over the rails and into the ocean. The further they get away from her the better.

Ace walks against the flow of the crowd until he gets to Dadan. "Dadan!" He says before he grabs her shoulders and shakes her. "What the fuck did you think you were doing?" He screams in her ears. "What the heck, old hag! Didn't I tell you to stay in the infirmary?"

"Shut the hell up brat! I can go where I want!"

"Not on a fuckin' pirate raid you don't!"

"Says you! I got those damn intruders off yer' base!"

"This isn't a base Dadan, it's a ship. A Pirate Ship!" Ace grits his teeth.

"Same difference! Bandits on Sea are like Pirates on Land. A base is a ship. A pirate's a bandit." Dadan exclaims.

"No, I'm not! I ain't a bandit." Ace screams in retort. He hadn't yet known how that sentence would affect Dadan. She didn't respond after he said that as if taken aback by the outright rejection of being associated with them.

Dadan just had that look in her eyes, the one that he rarely sees, except when she'd gotten a startling realization. And all too soon, a bitter stiff frown of sternness. "No, wait… Dadan, I didn't mean-" She stops him.

"Yeah, I get it. Yer' a terrible bandit." She shuffles out of his hold, rolling her shoulder to get his handoff. "Ya ain't the boss of me." She says instead as she called for her charges.

"Magra, Dogra," She yells, the two bandits appear before her to hear her orders "Help Newgate's crew with the clean-up. If ya can get useful weapons for yourselves, ask Newgate's first mate before you take anythin'." She says as she returns to the infirmary "Report back to me at the infirmary after your done." Then she walks back to the infirmary.

Only when the coast was clear, Magra decided he had to take care of the child. Somehow, the person he considers his child.

"Ace…" Magra speaks to the pirate with a calm voice. "Are you alright?" He asks.

Ace finds himself snapping out of his thoughts as he feels Magra's warm hand on his shoulder. "Yeah. I'm just… I'll go check on Luffy."

While across the deck, Edward Newgate stares at the fall out of the little group. Ace makes his way to the other side of the deck, to where the little monkey was last seen tied to a banister.

"Marco," Whitebeard calls, Marco lazily comes beside his captain, saying nothing but a nod of acknowledgment. "-Take care of our wounded. Cast out a few life preservers into the ocean or some old wood we don't need anymore for the purple brats."

"Oyaji-" Marco adds, his bored expression doesn't hide the one tremble on his lip and that lip bitting he was doing to his upper lip. The signs that he was troubled. The sign that he was hesitating to tell him something. "-The bandits are surprisingly adept in a fight." Whitebeard raises a brow, asking him to continue, patiently waiting for him. "Should we be worried, yoi?" He blurts.

Whitebeard knows Marco was less than thrilled to be the one to ask this. Word gets around in the Moby Dick, and one of the more critical thinking men would wonder about the true strength of those bandits, and after the little show today, more world will likely go around. There are wise men all around him, all uncertain and warry for the family's safety. He knows Marco isn't the only wise man in the Moby- he's not the only one speculating… He's the representative tho.

"Dadan knows her place, she knows what she wants. And that is not the life at sea."

His words don't sound so sure to himself either. Maybe because he wishes it was that easy to make her stay at sea with him…

Marco's worries aren't quelled. Still, he answers with his usual tone. "I hope you're right Oyaji… I hope you're right, yoi."

* * *

"I saw you and Ace have a little argument." Whitebeard's voice from the den-den mushi. The den-den mushi given to Dadan by one of the nurses.

"Newgate?" She asks, puzzled. "You're literally a few meters away from the infirmary." She states the obvious.

"A few meters away, but a million obstacles to overcome. It's easier to talk to you from the den-den." He shrugs. The obstacles being Marco, the first division, the nurses and the patients in the infirmary. "So, do you want to talk about it?"

"No. I don't-" she couldn't complete her sentence before Luffy came in with a rare frown.

"Dadan." He starts. "I don't think you being in the same boat as Ace is good." He gets to the point. And the point hits Dadan like a punch. She knows their relationship is that bad, but having Luffy confirm it to her is like getting woken up with a Luffy falling on her guts.

"I know." She breathes, waits for him to take a few more steps inside the room before she continues. "We're not staying long here. We'll stay in another mountain soon enough." She says to Luffy. "Get out of here brat. I'm busy with bandit stuff." She dismisses him. Luffy being the brat that he is, doesn't leave.

"You know he cares about you, right?" He says in a rare straight face. "Ace is just being stubborn and a dumb head because he doesn't like seeing you getting hurt like with Bluejam again."

"If you're trying to say I'm weak and gets injured easily, then let me point out that not everyone are monsters like you two." She screeches, but oddly enough gets back to looking fond of the boy. "Get outa' here ya punk." She says with no real threat. Luffy takes it as a good sign and smiles. He goes out the door with a wave before he closes it shut.

"Newgate, you still on?"

"Your youngest cares about you and Ace a lot." His response.

"He has his ways of showing' it." She shrugs. "But I don't want to talk about it. Well, not like this."

"I understand." Newgate adds, "Then, could you meet me at the figure head in 5 minutes. I'll prepare a little surprise."

"I don't feel like going out." She instantly turns him down.

"Please?" The snail batts its eyes, Dadan could already imagine Newgate pulling that trick in her mind's eye.

"Ya know, puppy dog eyes aren't very suited for a pirate like yourself."

"Oh, then do you prefer a more forceful approach?"

"Oh fuck no. I heard what you did to make Ace join you, and I am content being on board, dry and not bruised by your kitty punches."

"Ha! Who called those kitty punches?" He laughs. Kitty punches, sounds like a term Haruta would use, or maybe Thatch. Whoever it was must have been a bit away during most of Ace's assassination attempts. "Those weren't even punches. They were merely a flick of my finger." Newgate laughs.

"You are fuckin' scary you know that?!" Dadan screeches at him. "Fuck, your strong. What are you even doing talking to someone like me. You can shake the world by clenching your fist. Heck, I felt the sea rock when you were tapping your feet that one time. You could literally murder me by accident, you know that?!"

Newgate's laughter stops at her words, he doesn't really see it ever happening, killing her by accident. If anything, she proves to be more resilient than she looks, and stronger than she acts. "But you won't stop talking to me, would you?" He smiles, the den-den mushi smiles at her, like he knows well enough that hypothetical thought wouldn't ever happen.

"Accidents happen, Newgate. We'll never know what happens in the future… when the people we're close to would betray us. When the people we love would die."

And the mood turns sombre. A reflective silence rests between the two as they stare at the den-den mushi before them, searching for a sign that the other will say something else. Something else other than the truth. -That the future is unknown to them. Dadan crosses her arms, trying to look tough, but only feeling weaker, comforting herself with her own warmth.

"Dadan, see me near the figurehead in 30 minutes."

"Newgate-"

"Captain's orders." He adds, "and if you don't show up, I'll wait outside until midnight. We're nearing a winter island, so wear something warm." And he puts down the receiver, getting no answer from the woman at the other end.

Newgate breathes. That was more exhausting than he thought. He didn't mean to use his authority over her, but if that's what it takes to get her to go, then he'll do it. Dadan is as stubborn as Ace, and stubbornness like that takes some time to crack. He hopes, she'll see that Ace is perfectly safe here, and she should be too. He only hopes after this talk, she'll be more accepting that she doesn't need to fight and be strong all the time.

That as she is, she's easy to love, and she deserves the love she gets. He sees her as a smart protective woman, who's only means of safety is staying hidden.

She doesn't need to hide. Not now, not really.

By this time, everyone sees Dadan's similarity to Ace. They see their self-deprecating tendencies. Their outbursts of fury and flame, and their boundless love for those that are dear to them.

She hides her true potential behind cowardice and fear while Ace hides his insecurities behind pretense and bravado. It's what restricts her, but it had kept her and her family safe for such a long time that she's grown used to it. She doesn't even see there's so much more to her than being a deceptively cruel bandit. She's smart. She's competent and far stronger than she thinks she is.

All the things she says she isn't, the things she says she can't… They were excuses. She finds reasons to keep herself in the dark, to keep herself hidden from the diamonds all around her, when she herself is a rare gem.

Newgate sees her as that, and he's proud to call her a friend. A friend he wants to help.

So this is what he'll do. They'll talk, and he'll tell him everything he thinks about her, and about Ace, and how she doesn't need to hold back. He'll tell her every single thing that's wonderful about her and make her see her worth.

It has to work.

So she can feel safe at sea... and maybe, she'll choose to stay a while longer with them.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**It's a TUESDAY! I'm posting because I feel like it! XD **

**Gowd, I'm starting to hate my writing. It's so long and drawn out... but I dunno how to write another way! It's like, I want to delete a really long paragraph, but I feel like I've wasted my time and I don't want that because the idea is still good, but not at that moment... ya'know?! Anyway. Next week is more DadanXNewgate talk! I just love those moments. XD I may be posting sooner than you think :P**

**To Guest: I know! I loved their meeting too much! I was on a roll after that! XD Thank you for your comment! I love watching the older sib laugh at their younger sibs. My cousin has like 4 younger sibs and he tells me stuff and we laugh at my cousins' failed attempts at hiding secrets and scheming for hugs. That was particularly inspired by my younger cousin recording a video of her parents arguing about something petty at dinner and her poor dubbing of the whole thing in a conversation about tacos and babies and shumai. The dad was voiced by the older cousin. -Haruta looked like he had skills for lip-reading, so there we go! XD**

**Thank you, everyone, for reading, reviewing and **faving**! Enjoy! XD**


	21. And Building Walls Around You

**Chapter 22**

The wind was chilly and the air smelled faintly of pine. She was thankful Newgate had told her to wear something warm, because this was much colder than she'd liked.

It snowed in Mt. Columbo every year during winter. The temperature drops to below zero, and the wind would be sharp and cold enough to slice through skin on a bad snow storm. Mt. Columbo was a tough place, and Dadan had known this since she was a child. She'd grown up with these conditions, yet there were just some things she would never get used to.

When it snowed, everything froze to sleep and death in the dense jungle, but around those times, she rarely goes out and only let the brats and the bandits out to hunt for provisions. Even when she had all the body fat, she rarely went outside because it was too cold for her. Instead, she sits by the fire of the hideout, keeps it lit, keeps the hut warm and guards the fire before it dies and the wood stocks run out.

She grumbles to herself that she knows her weaknesses, and the cold is one of them. Yet there was a force that pushes her to go out to meet the captain of the large vessel they were sailing on. At first, she credited it to fear. Fear that Newgate really would kill her as punishment for disobeying Captain's orders. Then she thought that wasn't it.

Newgate was her friend… A good person, if not a friend. After all, who was she to say Newgate was a friend? He's much too good for the likes of her. Just as she'd say Garp was her rival, no one would believe she'd punched the guy for being an idiot multiple times before in the past, even before he became a marine. She was a mere bandit in comparison to them. They were men who's names were known throughout the world. Legends, and soon to be legends in Ace and Luffy's cases. Still, she tells herself, it's knowing they're special to her that counts. This was enough.

And when her feet took her to the figurehead, he was there. Looking out the ocean with a large sake bottle and wearing nothing but his captain's coat over his shoulders.

"Newgate! Fucking' get a shirt on will ya!" Her greeting. "It's freezing! You'll get sick with a stupid cold you stupid man!" She berates as she takes one blanket from her shoulder to cover a measly portion of his chest, (comically small) after climbing a set of stairs to get closer to the man's shoulder. The blanket was not nearly enough to give him any semblance of protection from the cold. And in return, he laughs. "Gurarara!"

She holds herself back from smothering him with weak punches to the arm. "I'm serious Newgate. Get a fucking shirt on!"

"Oh, is it because you get flustered when you see my body?"

"Pfft," she rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, "As if." Although, her scolding softens into a sigh of acceptance. This guy just keeps on putting his health at risk. No wonder the nurses and doctors are worked to the bone.

"It's cold." She says instead. "I don't want either of us getting sick with a stupid cold old man. And if anything, you're actually grossing me out, perv."

"Ouch, Dadan, that actually hurts. I take great pains to maintain a body like this." He flexes an arm, still very much muscle and a little bit of skin hanging. "And it takes more than this to make me sick." He follows.

"Only idiots say that before they get sick." She counters.

"Then I shall drink sake to warm me up." He shakes the jug in his hands. Dadan's eyes widen. Surprised he was showing that out in the open. "Marco let me have it, just this once…" He explains. "I thought I should share my spoils with you, since you share your spoils with me all the time… Call it a sign of good will." He opens the bottle and lets her have the first sip. "I hope you don't mind sharing."

"I ain't no priss." She takes a swig from the bottle. "This is good stuff." She says, instantly feeling warm from that one mouthful.

"Oh it is. It's from my secret stash, you could call it." He takes the bottle from the railing between them where she placed it.

"I'm guessing this is not so much of a secret."

"Yeah. I usually make Thatch hide my stuff, but he's been -occupied." By Marco's monitoring, he fails to say. Newgate takes a swig from the bottle. "I didn't tell Marco, but I guess he figured out my conspirator was Thatch."

"Well, I'm not telling ya' my supplier, if that's what yer' tyin' ta get outta me."

"I would never," he feigns shock and innocence. "-but it's Thatch isn't it?" He speculates as he gives her the bottle when she extends her hand.

"Nope." Dadan answers with a swig. "-and I ain't telling."

"Keep your secrets then, woman." He takes the bottle from her hand.

"Oh, I plan to." She smiles. Silence follows, the wind blows colder, and Dadan decides to cross her arms, preserving her heat from the cold. Well, it seems three (two now) thick blankets weren't enough to stave off the cold from a winter island.

Newgate notices and decided to make it warmer for his friend, he shields her from the wind with his body and presses his arm just a little closer around her. Dadan looks a lot smaller, practically being blanketed by Newgate's larger form.

She sighs comfortably, feeling the heat from Newgate at her back instead of the chill.

"Dadan, you know, Ace was just worried about you-" He starts.

Dadan pouts, holding back a groan. They'd have to talk about it eventually, and now was a good time, or so he thinks.

"I know that already…" She whines. How does she explain it- What's happening between them. It's always so easy to ruin everything. One moment they were good, the next they were fighting! One minute they were working for the safety of their family, the next they were threatening to split it up to placate themselves. How could she explain the roller coaster she calls their relationship? How could she explain the feelings she's going though?

"It hurts when I realized there could have been much in common between us." She starts. Newgate thinks, there is a lot in common between you both. So much, I could make a list. She stares out in the ocean instead, watching the waves and the occasional patch of ice drifting away.

"Bandits loot caravans and anything on land, and pirates like you and Ace loot ships and galleons and heck, even we loot our rival gangs." She sights more comparisons while Newgate listens, patiently and attentively.

"We both fight, more than often dirty; and your ship is as dear to us as our base or hide out. More than once, I saw Ace use a move we bandits taught him in the jungle, and we're glad he uses it here with the ropes and the planks. We're both crooks, and the World Government wants us dead. There's a lot more.

We have so much in common and yet… it's not… enough" She pauses, looks to his understanding gaze. It was something she appreciated about Newgate. He was patient, he doesn't judge after seeing something, even if it's before his eyes. He actually talks to people, tries and tries to understand them. He was a perfect listener. He would be a perfect father for any child out there- especially a brat like Ace who has all the anger and hate in his heart. He hurts everyone he loves, he's just! Oh, he's still waiting.

"He said he wasn't a bandit and I get that… but being on this ship and fighting on a ship with him and you guys… Sometimes I wonder the difference." She laments, Newgate hums with her, a gruff sounding thing that she'd have associated with a wild animal. It reminded her of Pochi, her stray that… now that she thinks about it, she didn't know if he'd managed to save himself. -Another memory she'd cry about tonight.

"I know Ace worries about me now, but that's because -I think, he only sees me as strong when I'm on a mountain. When I'm surrounded by my bandits, and not here with him. It's like there's a line I can't cross because every time I do something more "pirate" than "bandit", Ace wouldn't let me."

"Maybe that's because you've been making him believe you've turned weak and helpless."

"He knows what I mean when I say shit." Dadan defends. Granted, she had complained a few times how everything was heavier than she remembered. Or how skinny she was, and how cold she felt all the time.

"I figured-" She starts, looks at her hands and grimaces. "I'd be stronger by now. Ace has grown stronger on sea." Compared to her. She ate a devil fruit, can't even use it and lost her strength until all she had were 2 of her bandits out of the 20 she'd called her own. "While I'm practically reduced to… to this." She gestures to herself. She takes her hand and wraps it around her bicep. "My hands can wrap around my bicep Newgate. I look like a shrimp compared to when I was a bandit boss."

"But you're still a bandit boss." Dadan rolls her eyes. "You still have your two bandits, and they believe in you. They still call you their boss."

"They're my family Newgate. I protect my own." She says. "Anyone can do that." -You do that, and you're a pirate remains unsaid.

"You still fight like a bandit." He comments instead. She snorts.

"And what, take the men down by whacking their knobby knees?" She mocks herself, "I used to swing a club as large as your arm, and knock down 10 men in one swing. What happened today was pathetic."

"I thought you did well."

"For a weakling" She adds. "All I did was swing a stick and fall on my ass. Heck, Dogra was the one who took that bastard down, not me!" She takes the bottle from his hand. He pouts, noticing he skipped his turn to drink.

"Well, I used to be able to swing my bicento, and three hundred people would go flying, simply by the force of my swing…" Newgate tells. "We're not getting younger Dadan."

"No. You're just growing old. I ate a fruit and turned weak." She drank sourly. While thinking, she may be getting old, but she was still younger than Newgate… and that 19- about 20 years counts for something, right?

"You're not weak." He says, but stops. She'll just keep putting herself down, and the cycle will continue. He'll need to change his wording, change his approach.

"You controlled the situation after the brats lost their captain. You prevented them from lashing out on you by showing them who you are and what you can do." He looks at her and tells her with all the honesty he could conjure. "You were amazing."

Dadan was taken off guard. Newgate smiles as he notices the red on her tanned skin. He laughs, loud and happy. Dadan feels the rumble of his laughter behind her. An oddly comforting feeling. Still she worries. He was getting colder too, and later his laughter turns into a hacking cough.

"Geeze Newgate. You're getting cold!" She tries to warm him up by rubbing her hands on his arm. She notices it was cold too. "Here, drink some sake ya' stupid man. When I said idiots who go out without a shirt get colds, I mean to say you're an idiot and you'll die by getting a cold."

He takes the sake and drinks it. Finishes it till the last drop went down his throat.

He slams the bottle down on the rail. "See, I feel better already." He wipes his mouth with his arm and smiles at her irritated look.

He says before he drops to the floor with a loud thud! His body starts to produce smoke and steam. He withers on the floor, having difficulty breathing, tugging at his chest as he tries to take in air.

"Newgate!" Dadan screams as she gets on her knees, still hesitant to touch him as he convulses.

The loud thud and her scream alerted the watchman on duty, and a few of the nurses and crew peaks out of the doors. "POPS!" They all scream as they make their way to the figurehead.

"HELP! HELP! I NEED-"

Marco lands above her on the railing where the bottle sat. The bottle crushed under his talons, the blue flames of his wings fierce and threatening. His eyes, like an eagle who looks at his prey. Dangerous- she thought, as he stared her down. Gone was the lazy drawl of his voice, and instantly she understood why he was the First Mate. With a venomous voice that could be poison, he hisses,

"What have you done?"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**I AM SOOO SORRY THIS IS SUUUPER LATE. I got busy -Realy really busy and I'm still floating on clouds and stuff and grieving for my cat and working happily in my job. I'm an emotional mess right now.**

**But here's to answer commentsL**

**Guest: Oh, Marco has issues. Which I will explain in like the next chapter.**

**Thank you all for liking and **faving** and reading. **


	22. I Will Study Your Mind

**Chapter 23**

"What have you done?" Marco hisses.

Dadan stares at the fearsome sight of the First Commander, of the Phoenix, right before her. Mighty, powerful and deadly in all his glory as a half-man, half-bird creature. His eyes narrowed into slits, almost demonic in nature. Dadan couldn't say a word as a she gawks.

The by standers stayed away from the scene. Scared of Marco and worried about their fallen captain. Ace pushes his way past the crowd. "Stand aside, I'm-" He reaches the deck to see Pops on the floor, releasing some sort of smoke, Dadan on her knees and Marco before her, wings wide and raised and threatening. His body moves on it's own. "Marco, don't!"

He reaches her before he could press a talon over her raised arms, now protecting her face and neck. "Ace!" She screams as she watches Ace take on Marco's talons. His arms black with armament haki, but was too weak to stay for long as his arms return to their normal color. "Stay out of this Ace, she did something to Pops, your Captain yoi!"

"She's my family too! Calm the fuck down Marco!" Ace screams. The Phoenix screeches, an unholy bird-like wail.

"Sons?" A voice groans from the side.

Their attention immediately shifts to Edward Newgate— a younger version of Edward Newgate. Golden hair cascades down his shoulder, his complexion was paler, but brighter and he looked so much like a man from a time long gone; from a time where he was glorious and at his prime. Marco wouldn't admit that he cried in joy.

"Pops?" Marco asks, relieved, still disbelieving and still worried. He shifts his attention back to Dadan, she was cowering behind Ace. She was also looking over to Newgate, also gawking at the man, trying to understand what was happening but arriving at nothing. This time, with a voice less threatening and more disbelievingly curious, Marco repeats his question "What. Did. You. Do (yoi)?"

"I have- no idea." She says. Before she faints in shock.

* * *

"Commander, I do not need two seniors passed out in my infirmary!" The first thing Dadan hears.

Oh, that must be nurse Hannah.

Commander Marco answers. "Actually, they're not quite seniors just yet, yoi. They're about the same age now. About 52 to 53 years-old, yoi."

"Pops was 72 just a few minutes ago! How could he have turned into- how did he…" Nurse Hanna tries to find the accurate description, but was already completed by Ace.

"How did he turn younger?"

Hanna glares at the person to interrupt her, "Actually, I was going to ask how did he reverse his bodily functions to recover his hair and repair his cells."

"Devil Fruit." Ace says it, dead pan and like the answer was obvious. Marco glares at the fire starter. "Well, what else could it be? Grand Line bullshit has three logical explanations. Geographical Luck or Unluckiness, Historic Curse or whatever, or Devil Fruit."

"Fine. Let's say it's a devil fruit. Who's devil fruit, yoi?"

Ace crosses his arms as he answers with confidence. "Dadan's, obviously."

Hanna shakes her head. "That's not quite possible yet Ace. Dadan doesn't know how to use her fruit. She hadn't made a single elixir even when we tried to teach her."

"She gets lucky sometimes." Ace defends. "She must have been thinking of something and Pops must have eaten something that had her hair in it or something like that."

"That's gross." Marco comments without a thought, but groans when he realizes something. "Ugh… they must have been sharing a bottle of sake, yoi." Recalling the bottle his talon had broken into pieces.

"Well, that's not good. Who gave Pops liquid poison?" Nurse Hanna scowls, a bunch of wrinkles on her pretty face. "When I find out the idiot that started this, I'm gonna skewer their heads on the mast."

Marco raises his hand and hides his eyes with the other, "I did, yoi." He admits.

"Commander!/ Marco?!" The nurse and Ace react the same time. Flabbergasted that of all the people who could have snuck Pops a bottle, it would be his own Physician! The very guy who's telling him to lay-off it!

"He said it was a present for someone. I thought he was going to be talking with you, yoi." Marco points to Ace.

"Well, apparently, he was gonna share it with Dadan." Ace begins to string it all together in his mind. "There's the story. They literally drank from the same bottle and Dadan unknowingly activates her devil fruit and Pops is like, 20 years younger now!" Ace summarizes. "Shouldn't we be celebrating instead of arguing?"

"We're not through with the tests Ace. What if this reverses years of his treatments? What if his tumor is still-"

"Pops has a tumor?" Because Ace didn't know. Marco covers his mouth with his hand. His eyes wide, like he cannot believe he'd just said one of the most well kept secrets from the world out loud.

Marco shakes his head, tries to collect himself. "Ace. That was confidential information, yoi. Promise me-"

"Pops was sick and you said it was due to old age. Were you lying to me?" Ace's voice was slowly rising in volume. "When were you planning to tell us this Marco? Don't we have the right to know-"

"You do! Yes, you do, but it's for his safety, Ace. Can you please-"

"Brats, shut the fuck up! I'm tryin' ta sleep here." Dadan grumbles as she gets up from bed. "Noisy brats. The infirmary's supposed ta' be a quiet place."

"Dadan-san, how long have you been up?" Marco asks, diverting his attention to the patient.

"We're not through with this Marco." Ace says. Marco could only nod in acceptance. 'We'll talk later.' He seems to say with his eyes.

Dadan answers "When you brats started screaming." She scratches her head, and rubs the edges of her lips, checking for drool.

"Do you have any recollection of what happened on deck?" Marco asks, going back to professional doctor mode.

Dadan stares at the man, and suddenly she remembered everything she felt about him. Truthfully, she was scared, a shiver ran down her spine when she remembered his eyes, and the dangerous feeling around him and his flames.

He backs away from her when he notices her trembling.

"I guess you remembered that." He comments, but bows his head low. "I'm sorry. I really am sorry." He says with sincerity.

"I- I get it. Just… I don't think I want to see you for a while." She gulps. Hands fisting the blanket until her knuckles were white.

"I understand." Marco raises his head back up. "I'll sent for Deuce to be your Physician instead." He pauses before he adds. "I'm really sorry I did that to you Dadan-san. I shouldn't have jumped into conclusions."

"I said I get it… just. Watch over Newgate for me. He was about to get a stupid cold because he went out at deck without a fuckin' shirt on." She says instead. "Stupid idiot, gettin' a cold." She grumbles to herself.

Marco stares, at a loss for words. Was she seriously concerned or was this just another act to get closer to Pops?

People around the deck have been speculating… That Dadan was after Pop's treasure.

That she was going to seduce Pops and take everything she wants from his cold dead hands.

At first, Marco thought that was impossible, and tells those people to "shove-off" and "mind their own damn business".

Dadan wasn't that kind of person. She was a lot of things, but that kind of person she wasn't.

She was Ace's foster mother, a bandit boss— and a cowardly person hiding from Garp the Fist of all people. _(Oh wait, it is possible…)_ She's a bandit after all, and aren't all bandit's greedy?

And the fact that she was cowardly meant she results to other means to get her wealth. She was competent enough to do that. Heck, Marco thinks she'd had Garp under her finger the whole time she was fostering Ace. She probably had Garp delivering everything she needs to her hideout. Everything she could ever wish for while completely ignoring Ace's needs._ (Actually, that's not true. Ace is still alive, and with just a busted elbow from when he was a kid, but what would Marco expect from a bunch of medically illiterate bandits?)_

She was a rude, loud-mouthed _(maybe mentally ill)_ woman who's had her life destroyed by a Buster Call out of nowhere. Then, she eats a devil fruit- _(and what an interesting fruit that was!)_ The Pharma-pharma no Mi. A legendary fruit, when eaten by a capable chemist, could create the cure to every illness known to man!

Only, it ended up in the hands of one _(very)_ dumb woman. (_That's not true either. She's knowledgeable in other things. She's competent in raising children- like a midwife or an orphanage manager. But he won't tell her that._)

Then Pops started talking to her, calling her a friend, getting familiar and smitten with her.

At first, Marco thought it would be good for her to talk about it to someone who can bear her pain; save her from what appears to be signs of depression -but he's not that kind of doctor, and Sanchez (another 1st division doctor on psychology) didn't think she had it bad after she talks to Pops.

Pops was someone wiser and older. Someone who isn't under her care and someone more understanding. Pops was the perfect candidate for it and it was also good for his health to talk with people around his age that woun't get the marines constantly monitoring their ship. All of Pop's friends are either high ranking criminals or high ranking Marines. Dadan was neither. She was just a woman…. So Marco thought it's fine.

But then, they started talking **EVERY NIGHT**. _(Well, that was an exaggeration, but they talk **ALMOST** every night)_ That sent alarm bells ringing in Marco. They were getting too friendly with each other.

It's not the first time someone's tried that trick, and Marco thinks it wouldn't be the last one either. From Pops' stories, some women were just born to be gold diggers- he thinks. So he warns him to be cautious of her. Marco himself is cautious of her and her bandits, who are like shadows in the night; who blends well with their environment, Marco thought they were real threats with such an outstanding ability.

She tries to act like she was stern; but openly calls Pops stupid and an idiot at the same time like they were mere juveniles.

Well, that was rude, and definitely wasn't meant to flatter. _(Do gold diggers do that?)_

Then Pops laughs- at her, with her, for her. Marco was conflicted. She laughs for him too. And multiple times, he really did think she was a friend. A clueless, well-meaning friend… but the doubt lingers.

Everyone hides their doubt, but until she does something actually harmful, she was a good lady.

She was a friend of the crew. She was an extended family. Heck, Haruta was very close to calling her mom that one time in the Mess hall. The nurses are close to her too, and some other people who actually ask her for advice on some matters. It's not everyone, but she's made enough friends to warrant her part of the family.

And now this. Pops is suddenly younger. **SHE** made Pops younger, and she is currently more worried he'll get sick without a shirt on.

— **What is Marco suppose to think?**

"I will see to it that he wears a shirt from now on." Marco adds. "He's behind that curtain, by the way. He passed out after he told us you didn't do anything wrong."

"Honestly, I have no idea what happened. One moment he was coughing and hacking, the next he was releasing smoke everywhere." Dadan adds. "What if the sake is poisoned? Shouldn't I also be smoking?"

Ace chooses the perfect time to pipe-up. "Dadan, I think we're going to have to talk about this… We think it's your devil fruit."

"My devil fruit?" Dadan scans the room. Marco was gone from her sight, probably with Newgate, but the curtains were drawn and she doesn't know who else were in the room other than Ace and Nurse Hanna. "I don't want to talk about it here." She says as she lays back down. "And I don't have a devil fruit." She says loudly.

"Dadan, there's no one else here. Just us."

"Who's 'just us' Ace?" Dadan huffs, "-and walls got ears. You never know who's there."

"Geeze, stop being so paranoid." Ace's comment. "We're in **The Moby Dick**, this is the safest ship in the whole sea!"

"If you're more cautious, ya'll live longer."

"I'll live long enough if I'm strong enough."

"There's always gonna be someone stronger than you, brat."

"Then I'll beat him up with my crew."

"You'll never know when your crew'll be be there for you."

Hanna slams her hand on the table. "That's enough from the two of you." Before it escalates into something more hurtful.

Ace just wasn't the obedient type, was he. "Dadan, I think you should find a mountain, soon." He adds, "I can't stand living in the same place as you." Still calm, but Dadan could hear the bitterness by the way he said it.

"At least we're at an agreement." Dadan comments. "You were better off living on your own with Luffy. Saved us a lot of trouble cleaning-up after you."

"I can clean after myself. I just like driving you bandits on edge." He grins. She grits her teeth in frustration.

"Fine!" She throws her blanket at him. "Find us a mountain and we'll conquer it before the end of the year."

"That's 4 months away old hag." Ace retorts with reason. "I doubt you'll ever conquer one in 4 months, we still have to sail to it and scout it."

"I don't care. The sooner I get off this boat, the further I'll be from you." She hisses. "The safer I'll be from your antics and all the pain you cause me."

Her words must have hurt Ace. A small down turn of his lips trembled, like when he was a child about to cry… But Ace didn't show his weaknesses for long. He steels himself instead. "Fine then! The sooner you're off my hair, the sooner I can get on with my life."

"**Fine!**" Dadan yells at Ace with finality.

"**FINE!**" Ace storms out the curtained area, having the last word. Dadan hears the door of the infirmary slam shut.

And Dadan was left fuming with a silenced Nurse Hanna beside her.

Dadan huffs, takes her pillow, bunches it in a ball by punching it together, then shoves it in her face. Her muffled screams were heard by the patient at the other curtain.

"Dadan?" Newgate calls, still groggy. Obviously having been woken up from his nap.

Dadan flops on the metal bed, creaking from the force of her movement. She removes the pillow from her head as she takes a deep breath.

"Newgate." She calls. Reaches over her side and pulls the curtain a little until their eyes meet through the gap. With all the seriousness she could mutter, she says "You are now his only parent. I quit. He's your problem now."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**So yeah, Another short Chapter. I'm still very VERY tired and I wrote a mourning song for my cat. :( **

**I'm very out of it. So I'll probably not be posting for some time. Maybe till next year_ I dunno. Depends.**

**To Selet: Yes, She just accidentally activates her fruit. Just like she got Ace one day and just like she got Luffy one day. Completely unexpected. Like the rest of her life. Nothin' she planned. As I was implying- Dadan's luck is really grey. She's super unlucky but at the same time, she's also lucky. Her inability to understand her fruit is unlucky, but look at the bright side; she can use it only when she feels the need to. Even if someone kidnapped her and told her to make them immortality juice, she wouldn't have the slightest clue how to! The same way she can't make anti-biotics and tonics and elixirs. You can't force her to do it if she doesn't know how ;)**

**Shadow: Thank you for your kind words!**

**Guest: As explained in this chapter. Marco has a lot to fear. Bandits are competent in both the sea and the land. **

**To everyone else, Thank you and enjoy! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year. XD **

**:( (First Christmas I'm not gonna give my cat Century Tuna for her Christmas present.) :(**


	23. It's About Time We Talked Again

**Chapter 24**

"Well, the tumor is gone." Marco announces, happy and content. There's a contagious smile on his face, and everyone in the room just can't help but be elated with the news.

Pops had pulled open the curtain dividing his and Dadan's beds so that Ace, Luffy, Thatch and Haruta can also hear Marco's good news on Pop's health.

"It's a miracle!" Thatch exclaims as he jumps for joy. Thatch being one of the rare few that was told Pop's illnesses. No one could keep a secret from Haruta despite his young age- and all the other older tenured members of the Whitebeard Pirates also knew of these tumors that started popping-up 20 or so years ago… Some time after the second division commander was kidnapped by Roger. (Or so they like to think)

"You had a tumor?" Dadan asks, bewildered.

"What's a tumor?" Luffy asks, head cocking tot he side and showing a very clueless expression.

"Idiot," Dadan comments, "It's a bad pimple that hurts a lot and lasts forever." Dadan explains. To which Ace just face palms and hides his face from embarrassment. (This was the woman that cured him, and she didn't even know what she's done- he whispers under his breath.)

"Well, technically it would sometimes look like a pimple, but it isn't Dadan-san." Nurse Hanna explains from the side. "A Tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue either on the skin or inside you or your organs. It's normally the cause of cancer Dadan-san."

"Cancer?!" Dadan exclaims. She's heard of that before… but she'd also heard of a cure for that. "Doesn't he just need to eat a hundred berries a day every week to cure that?" Because that's what she'd been told to do in the past.

"Dadan, eating berries doesn't solve anything stupid old hag." Ace groans.

"Actually-" Thatch pipes in, "Berries are very rich in anti-oxidants and polyphenols, not to mentions vitamins. They could help a lot in stopping or slowing down the free-radicals from causing more harm to the body and helps control aging." Thatch explains. All three mountain dwellers cocked their head to the side, obviously lost in his jargon filled explanation. "In short, berries are good for treating tumors."

"Ha! Told ya'!" Dadan's smug reply at Ace. The ravenette just rolls his eyes and lets it go.

"Ne ne, old man," Luffy starts, "How strong are you now?"

"Gurararara! Careful what you're asking boy." Whitebeard's only comment. That however, was answered by Haruta.

"Luffy, this was the age Pops was able to fight and equal the Pirate King and Garp the Fist! This was the age where he was unbeatable!" Haruta was practically singing his praises with stars in his eyes. "This was also around the time the crew began, isn't that right Pops?"

Whitebeard laughed. Haruta was such a smart child, remembering the time long past, before he was even born. "That is close my son. The crew had been sailing for 35 years since, but the divisions started around 20 years ago."

While Whitebeard went on to reminiscing, Ace was frozen to one sentence. 'The age Pops fought equal with the Pirate King.' Ace gulps.

"Hey Pops, can you do me a favor once Marco says you're ok to go." Ace interrupts. Edward Newgate looks down at the boy, already having an idea of what he wants. "Spar with me." Ace says casually.

"Ace!" Dadan shoots up from her reclined position, she instead turns to the man being challenged. "Newgate, don't do it." She says, almost a command.

"Sure my son. A friendly spar, but…" He adds a condition, "only on a different island we'll dock at. An island with no civilization, where no one can get hurt in the aftermath."

"Deal!" Ace smiles. "I'll go find one!" He says with cheer.

"After you find Dadan a mountain island." Whitebeard adds. Ace pauses. Is he serious?

"What, yoi?" It was Marco who asks. "B-but, her powers-"

"-Are not something I should take advantage of." Newgate completes. "She's already done a wonderful job giving me back my youth and health. The last thing I want to do is keep her from her own goals, son."

"But Oyaji!" Ace interrupts. "We wouldn't know how long this will last! It could last only days or hours after you part with her. Heck, if someone beats her, she might loose control of her devil fruit and you might return to your normal age."

"And there's nothing wrong with that." Newgate smiles. "We humans shouldn't get used to altering our time like this…" He smiles at Dadan, "But I have to admit, one bright side of doing this is that I could act a little more reckless with you and the younger boys." He grins, cheeky and devilish, and Dadan really should compile a list of things pirates would want to do when they suddenly get younger (to know what to expect).

"What do you say boys? Who wants to raid a marine base?!"

"YEAH!" Thatch, Haruta and Luffy cheers together.

A scolding "Pops!" From Marco was barely heard in the cheer, and Ace- "Wait, do we raid a base before or after we find Dadan a mountain?"

* * *

"What do we have here, son?"

"A list of mountains." Ace states as he drops 20-25 leaflets of papers on Pop's bed. Dadan was sharing the spot beside Newgate's bed, now also intrigued at the papers Ace brought in.

"Are all of those even liveable?" Dadan asks.

"Well, these places have water, sun and soil. It's as inhabitable as it can be." Ace remarks, Dadan shoots him a glare. "And besides, last I checked, Mt. Corvo isn't really one of the safest mountains in the list, neither was it really considered "liveable" by the normal people."

"I get your point brat, don't be a smart ass about it." Dadan scolds, but reaches out for a paper none the less.

"What about this one Boss?" Mogra seems to materialize out of no where (behind the separating curtain), holding one of the papers Ace had presented. "Mt. Hokutoo." He reads. "Looks green and lush. I wonder how many seasons there are here…"

"That actually has 13 seasons. Very fast paced and Grand Line level unpredictable." Newgate explains as he rubs his chin, tries to remember the small details about it. "Has big animals, usually a lush green island, has a volcano-"

"Nope. No volcanoes. Next." Dadan interrupts. Picks out a random mountain from the pile. She practically shoves it to Newgate's face, forcing him to read the name of the mountain.

"Mt. Hexalawilliania" He reads a mouthful, but enough to remember exactly what kind of place it is. 'A terrible place, cursed by creatures said to be descendants of demons. Anyone who steps there is said to forever bear the curse of paranoia, even after they escape the island; if they escape the island. No one has really succeeded.' He prepares to say but was ultimately shot down at the spot.

"Nah. The name's too much of a mouthful. Next." Well, she dodged a bullet there. Newgate sighs in relief.

"How about this boss." Dogra pops up from the left, also showing her a poster.

"How about this Newgate?" Dadan asks the captain beside her.

Ace takes the paper. "You bandits ought to read this stuff your selves. Quit being lazy." He looks at the leaflet… and blanks. He didn't remember putting this specific mountain here.

Dadan huffs in impatience, "What's the matter brat? Can't read?"

"I can read, and you fuckin' know it old hag. Not that you taught me how anyway." His response, but ultimately frowns. "I don't remember placing this mountain on the list."

Now that intrigued the people around them. "What mountain is it son?" Newgate inquires. Ace hesitates, but decides it best to tell him.

"It's Mt. Cabra. Twin mountain to Mt. Clova at Paradise." Dadan's eyes widens to the term "Paradise"….

"Tell me what it is Ace. Twin mountains sounds interesting. What makes them twins?" She inquires.

"They're twins cuz they look alike, same height, same trees on the mountains' faces; and they are kinda in the same island but there's a different signal on the log pose for the other mountain which is weird… But there's a difference in what their soil is made of. One of them might have been a volcano in the past, but no one's really got the whole story of it. Scientists gets scared of the large animals in the area."

"Did you say large animals?" Dadan interjects, sounding more and more like she found the perfect island. "How many seasons does this have again?"

"I'm not sure, but it's in Paradise so the weather would be unpredictable, but this looks like a summer island. Could get chilly, but tropical all through the year." Dadan tilts her head to the side. It takes a while for Ace to realize his mistake "Tropical means warm climate or weather."

"This one. I wanna see this one first." Dadan says "When can we visit it?"

"So soon?" Newgate asks, Dadan swore he was pouting when he asked.

"Well, we don't want to be dead weight for ya. We've been causing trouble around yer' ship; and other things. I think the sooner we conquer a mountain and build a base, the faster we can get on out of your noses. Sooner we can get back ta' bein' bandits n' all that."

"You're no burden. I like you here." Newgate admits shamelessly.

"And I like staying beside ya' too." Dadan responds, honestly and with the same amount of embarrassment as the captain. She settles back down beside him, wholly content with the bicep at her back and the arm resting over her thighs. She looks like a doll in the Captain's arms, but there really was no where else she'd rather be. "-But we're still gonna have to visit that island."

Newgate sighs, "Fine… Ace, set course for that island after we visit Penguin island."

"Pops, that's all the way in Paradise. If anything, I was thinking the Moby Two could take us there instead of the main ship."

"Nope, I insist. I would also like to see this island."

* * *

"Absolutely not, yoi." Marco replies with finality. "Moby cannot make the trip back to Paradise. She's not ready to go underwater just yet. Takes months for us to get her ready to travel like that, yoi." He reasons when he sees Whitebeard and Dadan pouting. Both looking so alike, it would have made him laugh seeing the both of them sulk.

"It's fine Newgate. Me and my boys will scout the island ourselves. It's only the first island after all. Not even sure it's the perfect one for us to set our base on." Dadan assures the captain beside her. Patting his arm slung over her shoulder.

"But I want to go see it with you." He says, sounding like a whine. This only got Dadan smiling and smirking, teasing. "We're goin' ta' an adventure in that winter place. Don't ya' think two adventures in a row's gonna make you bored of me?" She chuckles.

"I don't think I'll really ever get bored with you." He says. She blushes, but hits his arm to hide the red tint on her cheeks. "You're making me sound like a toy you can play with. You are such a kid." She says.

"Well, I did just get 20 years younger." He smirks, lifts her up with a squeek and sets her down on his lap. "And at this position, you already look like a doll in my arms."

"Hey! Watch it Newgate! Brats are looking- this is embarrassing." She squirms like a cat, and makes her way back to the side of the bed, off his lap. Marco notices however, she doesn't stray far. She simply sits back beside him, comfortably close enough so he can sling over an arm around her.

"Don't worry Dadan-san. It's not like you don't always migrate to his lap anyway, yoi." Marco comments with an amused chuckle.

"What dya' say brat?" Dadan asks. She didn't think she was always on Newgate's lap.

Ace groans from beside them, seemingly forgotten. "I can't believe you don't realize it. You ALWAYS end-up on his lap. Thatch won't stop gushing about it since the third day you roped him into making you guys snacks for your tea time."

"Now wait just a minute!" Dadan screeches at Ace. "I don't always sit on his lap. I sit on his chair's arm rest too."

"With your feet on his lap." Ace rolls his eyes. "Don't tell me you just naturally gravitate to his lap without you noticing."

"Well, Commander Marco sits on Newgate's shoulder like a parrot." Marco may or may not have let out an offended squack at the statement. "Why can't I sit on his lap?"

"Marco's his First Mate! And he's a bird Zoan. He's earned the right to sit on Pop's shoulder." And Ace smirks, a cruel tone to his words "What excuse do you have? Why do you think you can hang around the strongest man in the world? Who are you to him anyway?"

And Dadan could only glare in contempt. But she knew the answer. "I'm nobody." She says. And Ace already regrets asking her that question. "Just a friend." She says, looks to Newgate's eyes, nodding his head in approval. The smile brings a warmth to her heart, enough to soften the corners of her mouth into a straight line instead of a frown.

"I'm going to the mess hall. Don't find me. I'll be back in here after dinner." She grumbles as she storms out of the infirmary with as much stomp to her feet as she could. The door slams with the loud clack of the metal door knob, and those left in the scene could only cross their arms and shake their heads in disappointment at one Portagas D. Ace.

"You shouldn't have said that, yoi." Marco says as he thunk's the back of Ace's head.

"You don't think I regret saying it?" Ace sulks. Marco stares at his brother and takes a deep breath. "I don't think you regret it enough to never repeat it again." Because Ace could, and he would, and Ace knew he deserved the disapproving stares from Whitebeard and Marco.

"Son," Whitebeard starts, "It's time for an overdue talk."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

**I'm Still Alive! -But I can't promise regular updates. Sorry in advance. TT - TT **

**Wow, so much has happened in one month, and it's only January! I can't beleive it! Did you hear about Taal Eruption? Did you hear about the Israel rocket and the Ukranean air craft? Did you hear about Corona Virus? And Wow, it's Chinese Newyear- on a January! Did You hear about Kobe Bryant?! Did you Know Stocks in Oil and Steel are low right now becuase of the Corona virus; because the Chinese workforce is sick or staying at home? SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED IN A MONTH- and that's not including the things in my life. Seriously! The world is playing a cruel joke on us. TT v TT (*I'm crying while I'm smiling)**

**Well, Enjoy this chapter, and the next one would take some time to make. I stll haven't written it! XP Have a Happy! New Year! (and keep safe- because it's becoming more and more prevalent that this year, we may just have a spike in transport accidents.)**


	24. It's The Care You Give

**Chapter 25**

After everyone had vacated the infirmary, Ace sits in front of Whitebeard, on Dadan's bed, beside the Captain's. His legs were dangling over the edge, restless under the eyes of his Captain, the man he considers his father, his Pops.

"Dadan doesn't resent you." The Captain's first words.

"She hates me." He states. "She's always hated me, ever since I could remember."

"She cares for you Ace." He says, "Otherwise, she'd have killed ya when you were a baby." Case in point.

"She wouldn't- she's too afraid of Garp." He reasons.

"She could have. She's a bandit. She had multiple chances. Garp wouldn't have turned her in because you weren't expected, and she didn't really know what to do with you when she got you." Whitebeard sighs. "Garp doesn't talk about his life, but he's told us that he wasn't born in the mountains; and he knew to raise a baby- an infant no less, in the dangers of the forest gave it fewer chances of surviving."

"I know. I had to beat-up a lot of animals who almost ate me."

"Before you could defend yourself, Dadan has also saved you from multiple dangers. Trust me Ace, she cares about you more than you think."

Ace crosses his arms, unconvinced. "I still doubt that."

There was no arguing with him. So the captain sighs and searches for another way. "What is she to you Ace?"

"She is just a caretaker." Ace follows after some thought, "She is a foster parent."

"Do you love her? Care for her well being?"

"She can take care of herself." He responds quickly, as if indifferent and still the automatic response. Oh, Whitebeard knows she can handle herself, but faced against the tougher foes, he isn't sure. And Ace wasn't sure either.

"Ace, if she dies now, as she is- in the sea, in a situation she's always said she's afraid of, what would you do?"

Ace grits his teeth, anger in his tone as he says "She isn't going to die!" Because she isn't. She has him, and Ace is strong. Strong enough to survive. And she is strong as well. Strong enough to live and protect Luffy and Makino and her two bandits. Strong enough to lift an ax and fight and survive a fire. She's strong enough to face Garp, to even associate with Garp means you aren't a waste of his time. She's strong enough to survive a Buster Call for god's sake! And… "She has you now too. This crew can keep her safe. She's in the safest place in the world." Ace says with so much certainty, Whitebeard doesn't want to correct him. "This ship is our home, but we must be cautious to protect it." He says instead. "Dadan isn't wrong… in keeping things secret. In hiding facts."

"Oh, like your tumor that you told nobody about?" Ace snaps. The flash of hurt on his captain's eyes almost makes him take it back and apologize. almost.

"Exactly like my tumor," Whitebeard admitted, defeated. "What do you think would have happened, Ace?" He rests on his bed, reclining on the backrest of the inclined hospital bed. "If the World Government found out about it. If the crew, the family knew and mourns about it. Drink themselves in the bar in sorrow and worry. The spies and journalists fish it out and the news spreads all over the world. What do you think would happen?"

Ace thinks, the realization of the aftermath in his head. He swallows the lump on his throat. "Chaos." The only word that could sum it all.

"People would try to claim things that aren't theirs to claim. They would kill, destroy islands, destroy lives if they found out." Whitebeard pauses, places a hand to Ace's shoulder. A warm reassuring comfort, a contrast to his next words. "They would try to fight me to get a title they think they can claim because I've grown old and sick." He breathes, "They would take my family away from me."

"They can't!" Ace snaps, a fire in his eyes. Determined and blazing in a way that made even Whitebeard cautious of the boy, "I won't allow them. Let us handle them Pops. Let us fight for you." He says; unwavering loyalty and something so close to love. "Even if the news like that spreads, you have us to lean on. I won't let anything happen to you and to the crew."

"I know you won't." His captain replies, "-but it would hurt me to see my sons get hurt."

"The pain of seeing you suffering is worse than any pain a tumor could cause, Ace."

"Then what good am I as a son, when I can't even defend my father?" Ace says, almost to tears.

"You are a gift as yourself." He smiles, "You care. You would fight for me, would take my crew though safe passages. You treasure my treasure, my dream— and that's all I would ever ask of you." And the matter of this talk returns, "The same way Dadan cares about you, but in her own special way."

Ace snorts, "What, screaming at me and Lu?" He chuckles. Because screaming at them to be quiet is her way of keeping them hidden. It's her way of protecting her family. Her mde of survival.

"Keeping you and everyone she loves alive." Whitebeard's response. Ace could only keep silent as he thinks about his captain's point of view. "That's how mothers are Ace." A firm squeeze on the boy's shoulder before he lets go, returning to reclining on the bed.

"Dadan will be back here before dinner."

"S-she said after dinner." Ace corrects.

"I think she'll realize she'd have to get dressed with more layers before we land on White Thorn island." He remarks, exactly as the bells sound. "Land Ho!" Someone calls from the watch nest and the stern. And a laugh that could only be described as "Luffy" is heard, shouting the same sentence with glee.

"Shit, I don't think he's dressed for the cold." Ace comes to a realization. Rubber and cold do not mix well.

"AAAHHH! IT"S COLD!" The Captain and Second Commander hears the boy's complaint through the infirmary door. They could only laugh and sigh in exasperation.

"Shit, it's freezing." Dadan curses as she rubs her arms though a thin blanket, the only blanket she took when she stomped out to reach the mess hall for an early lunch.

"Boss,-" Magra appears beside her, handing over a large warm looking coat that was colored pink. It was a long padded coat that would reach all the way to her ankles. And she was very thankful. Having put it on, she felt instantly warmer. However, she was still wearing shoes which were still too cold for her, so she goes back to her room.

Along the way, she sees Luffy getting bundled in layers, upon layers of clothes by both Makino and a sparsely dresses Ace.

"DAMN BRAT! Wear a coat! I'm feeling cold just by looking at ya'!" She orders.

"Damn old hag! I'll get to it later!" He shouts back, not looking back and lacking the usual bite he directs to her specifically. She wasn't surprised at all anymore, honestly. There are just days when she and Ace don't fight, and there are days where the argument escalates to threats and punches. She thinks she deserves it, sometimes. She wasn't the best example of a parent to begin with, not with how she treats her charges. The hideout was always noisy when the younger boys were there, so she doesn't think anything would change, not on this ship. Still, she looks at Ace, fussing over tying Luffy's boots and scolding him for even trying to just wear sandals on the coldest weather in the Grand Line. -Only for a commander, Vista, to drop a black fire-retardant coat over Ace's head. Telling him to get dressed too.

With one last look of her charges on deck, she returns to the infirmary where she would have to get dressed warmly.

"Magra, where's Dogra?" She asked before she enters, but the man had made his way to the little group with Luffy. Magra already handing Ace an extra olive green trench coat which he was frowning at. Deciding to put on the black coat instead of the green one. Magra doesn't look offended at all. He just tucks the green coat in his arms.

However, Ace noticed something he'd been wonderign about. "Why are you guys wearing white?" Ace asks instead,

"So we can blend in." Dogra says. _So we don't get into trouble can't run away from_\- he means to say. Ace just looks at the two incredulously. Noticing they've made very little for themselves these past few days. Their stealth having been mentioned multiple times by the commanders which he just shrugs of- because, well, it's how they always are in his mind. Sticking to bushes, traveling under the shadows of the trees. Wearing the colors of their environment. There was nothing odd about bandits wearing the colors of their forest... but there was something odd with them wearing all white.

Dadan has taught them well. She gives herself an imaginary pat in the back and smiles at her two bandits. With that, she enters the warmth of the infirmary, only to be met with nurses screaming.

"Pops! You must wear your coat properly!" Dadan hears nurse Hannah. She was using a tone close to exasperation and pleading. Dadan was surprised she wasn't all out screaming and demanding.

"But I've always worn my coat this way." Whitebeard's statement as he settles it over his shoulders. Now he was wearing a button up, buttoned only until his chest, as his coat hangs over his shoulders.

"Ha, you honestly think you ain't gettin' a cold with that much to cover up?" Dadan remarks, off handedly, "Last time I was with ya' out there, I remembered a certain Pirate Captain that almost got a cold after a bad sneeze."

"Oh, you're exaggerating…." He waves her off, "It wasn't a cold at all. In fact, it was just the dust in the air." Excuses.

"Yeah, the dust in the cold air that turned yer' nose red and runny."

"It wasn't runny bandit hag."

"Keep tellin' herself that Newgate." She sits on her bed, found some socks and her boots to wear.

"Hey, wear something' warm would ya'. I'll borrow it later when I get cold." She says as she tosses over one of his scarves she got from one of the nurses. "And button-up yer shirt. If you pick me up later and yer' chest is cold, I'll get cold too." She reasons as she stands.

"Hurry up Newgate! The island is close." She says with excitement. "It's my first island in the Grand Line… And I can't wait to taste the sake you told me about."

The thought of sake was enough to get him to stand up, shirt buttoned-up, scarf hanging across his neck and an extra coat over his sleeves, just-in-case.

The nurses hide their amused smiles behind their clipboards and hands. Well, that was one way to get their stubborn captain to dress warm.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**There, a Chapter! XD -Still not sure if there'll be a next one so soon. I've been dreamt about cockroaches on my stew, and I know for a fact that either means: someone is plotting against me, there will be complications in business or I'll get sick with something serious. :/ Not the first time I've dreamt of roaches. :)**

To Guest: Thank you for Reviewing! XD I'm so happy someone is still reading this :)

Yup. I'm not saying that Ace treats Dadan badly all the time. Just saying that sometimes, kids treat their parents harshly without knowing it. And Dadan hurts too, sure, but she's saying she's used to it. Because she thinks she deserves it or something.

Dadan is actually pretty lenient, she lets her kids explore themselves and doesn't hold them down to owing her anything. There are parents who hold their chicks too tightly, like Outlook- and believe the child owes them his life. There are parents to hold their chicks too loosely- like Dragon, who isn't even there to guide his own child, thereby making a loose cannon of a boy like Luffy (and even Sabo is a sporadic game changing brat). Then there are those who hold their chicks tight then loose then tight then loose, like Whitebeard- who actually disciplines his kids when they do something wrong, but forgive them too like Squard. Whitebeard goes leaps and bounds for his charges and exercises both permissive and authoritative techniques. And while Whitebeard hasn't read any books in parenting, he sure does know how to keep his kids in line.

**Well,** **Enjoy!**


	25. It's the Smile You Show

**I Am Alive! And here is only 1 chapter (sadly). T^T Real World got me busy,,, It's not proofred nor betaed. Tell me if there's a typo, and I'll get back to that. Well, Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 26**

White Thorn island is one of the islands under Whitebeard's territory, however, it only became such because this island was specifically the home island of one of his merchant allies. An ally who'd provided for the Moby Dick in their multiple times of need, even going as far as offering the wears he was meant to sell and asking only for the barest minimum. An ally who'd shown his friendship to the crew, and undoubtedly loyal to their captain. An ally who died of old age—- and a cold.

"Well, the initial reason why we had to go here was because I wanted to visit his grave. To say goodbye to good ol' Reid one last time." Whitebeard says as he carried Dadan in his arm, Luffy having been wrapped around his other tricep as Ace had re-supplying duties to do while Thatch, Marco and a hand full of other commanders pay their respects to the ally they knew and were close to.

The few commanders and crew with them were numbered. There was Thatch, Marco, Kingdew, Haruta and Bleinheim. The rest were older members of the crew, an assortment from the other divisions who knew old man Reid. Mostly chefs from 4th division and those on procurement at 5th. Vista having volunteered to keep Ace from trouble but let the rest of his division go for him.

"I remember old Reid." Kingdew chimes, "He got scared really easily, but he was a good man."

"Well, he was scared at first. But he kept coming back and doing a fair trade. So he's a good guy in my book." Thatch adds. "Which reminds me, this island grows the snowberries he sold us that one time. I'd like to get my hands on those again."

"I remember him mentioning his wife grows them in her garden. We should pay respects to his family too."

"That won't be difficult yoi. This island has the tradition of burring the dead near their home or in their part of the land." Marco adds. "And that's their house right there."

They come across a moderately sized house. You could even call it simple. Outside the house, there was a young boy, about 5 or 6 years old by the looks of it. He was waiting on the porch, bundled up from head to toe, with big fluffy ear muffs that covers more than just his ears. He waves at them, but stands from his seat and runs inside the house. Alerting what could be his mother. One look at the group and she immediately knew who they were. She sent the boy inside the house as she greets the guests outside.

"Good day! Captain Whitebeard, I presume?" The lady smiles. Her dark tanned skin is something uncommon in these lands, and the curls of her hair, tightly wound, is something that intrigues Dadan. She looked like an interesting person. "Father-in-law had said so much about you." She greets, "-and the commanders too! How nice of you to visit him."

"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you." Whitebeard bows, keeping Dadan secured on his arm.

"Oh where are my manners. My name is Zarhi. Reigh's wife." Whitebeard remembers Rein mentioning his son following his footsteps was Reigh. He was planning to introduce his son to them the next time he visited, sadly, the next time never came.

"That's a pretty name." Luffy says from Newgate's bicep. She smiles at him "Thank you. And you are?"

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" He introduces. "And I'm gonna be Pirate King!"

"Well, that is quite a dream." The woman says as she hides her smile. A dainty smile that reaches her eyes. Dadan already gets the impression she was a good woman.

The more Dadan watches her, the more she can't even compare herself to her. The woman before her was charming, in all the right ways. Her words were respectful and her voice had an accent that was rather attractive. She didn't speak softly like Makino, but her speech was pleasant. Her hands moved around, but the motions were smooth and so dainty. Her skin looked soft, and she looked like she took good care of herself.

The complete opposite of her. Who was rash and impulsive when speaking. She could never be as charming as her like this, at their first meeting too. In which Dadan would always try to be the worse that she could to get others off her back.

And her child- who's inherited the chocolate of her skin and the high cheekbones but everything else must be his father's colors. The child was shyly hiding, looking behind the window, obediently staying put as his mother's orders. He looked so well cared for. Wrapped warmly in his well-made clothes, he looked cleaned and loved; and everything she didn't do for Ace when he was at that age.

"Oh, and who could that lady be?" She asks. A small wave of her hand to Dadan. Dadan waves back, a tiny wave she found herself imitating mindlessly from her action. "I-" she stumbles in her words, suddenly caught off guard. "I'm Dadan. I'm just hitching a ride." She says. And Zarhi smiles. A knowing twinkle in her eyes that Dadan thought familiar to Makino. It usually means she sees something most people can't. A feeling or sorts- an intuition… A mother's intuition.

"A pleasure to meet you." She says to Dadan, holding the Captain's coat in a bunch in her hand. It doesn't escape the Captain's notice.

"I'm dreadfully sorry. I'd invite you inside, but I don't think you boys can fit in our humble home." She points out the problem beforehand. The men towering over 20 to 15 feet high certainly cannot fit through a 7-foot door. Neither can they cram in 7 people in one tiny hut.

"It's no problem, yoi. We were only here to visit Reid's grave. We wouldn't want to intrude, yoi." Marco speaks for them.

"Father-in-law's grave, yes. It's right around the back of that house, right there." She points to the house just below a hill. Behind it seems like a public cemetery of some sort. "It's close by, but he's behind a few other graves of the relatives. The path is also very narrow, I could only take a few at a time." She explains the situation.

"If it's no bother, could you guide one of us through? We can take care of the rest once we find out where old man Reid is buried."

"I could, but…" Zarhi looks back to her house, to the boy looking through the window. "I can't take Rein with us, he's been sick the past week and I wouldn't want to risk him getting sick with a cold again. I'll need to call someone to watch over him, just for a few minutes."

Dadan was comfortable on Newgate's arm. In fact, she didn't want to leave the warmth of his elbow and his chest. However, time was of the essence. A winter island shouldn't have as much daylight as her mountain's. Waiting would just be a waste of time if you ask her- but after looking around if anyone would be willing to stay with a sick kid, no one volunteered; so begrudgingly, Dadan raises a hand. "I'll watch over him." She offers.

Whitebeard adjusts his hold on her until their eyes could meet, giving her a questioning look.

"Yeah, I've got experience with baby sittin' for long periods a time. An, I dunno yer' friend so I dun really need ta' visit him." Dadan reasons. "I can watch over Luffy and the kid." Dadan reassures.

"Oh that would be wonderful." Zarhi says as Dadan was put down on the shoveled path.

Dadan speaks-up. "Just to give you a warnin' tho. Your house might get hit by a hurricane called Luffy."

Zarhi stares questioningly. "Oh, alright, I guess…" Little did she know the mess she got herself into.

* * *

After packing for the short trip, Zarhi leaves the house in Dadan's (capable) hands.

"Luffy, behave." Dadan's fist command to the energetic youth, who found himself occupied with a bunch of children's toys that belonged to Rein. Luffy didn't have toys growing up. He'd lived a simple life, barely had any of the colorful things that Rein had in his room and scattered all around the house. Dadan thinks the kid was spoiled. Luffy thought it was cool.

Rein himself was back on his bed, huddled to a corner against the wall with a simple wooden toy boat in his hands.

"Ya' alright kid?" Dadan asks as she sits down a comfortable looking chair. It probably belonged to Zharhi.

"That's mama's chair." He says instead. Dadan doesn't stand up. "I just sat down for a bit, don't be shooting me those glares brat."

"That's mama's chair." He repeats instead. Dadan sighs. "I ain't replacing yer' mom. I'm just sitting' on a chair. She can have it back when I'm thru resting." Rein only shoots her a glare. Dadan doesn't even scoff at it. Ace's glare was worse- she notes. Kids looking at her wrong never bothered her. In fact, for all the things she's done, she thinks she deserves it.

"Ne! Rain. What's this thing?" Luffy asks the boy. Shoving a colorful toy on the bed. One which took the boy's attention to explaining how it works instead.

While looking after the kids, she tries to remember how did she spend her days when Ace was sick?

Most people would say it seems like it was only yesterday when they were taking care of their kids. For Dadan, it's been ages since she's taken care of Luffy and Ace when they were sick. The two idiots don't get sick either, probably due to their high stupidity- since stupid people don't get sick. Well, that was until nurse Hanna explained "Immunity system"? Was that what it's called? And "Gene-ticks"- the little fleas or ticks or somethin' Luffy got from Garp and Dragon.

Ace hardly ever got sick. She recalls. Most of her bandits don't get sick. Injured sure, but sick… Huh, maybe they were all idiots. None of them are related by blood so the Gene-ticks don't work on them, but maybe the ticks jumped around until all of them had the same immunity system… Well, since none of them get sick so easily, their immunity system must be really top-notch. Probably the best immunity system in the world, since even she didn't get sick while on the boat nor White Thorn Island.

"Dadan-san, may I have some milk, please." The boy asks, politely. Good to know his mother taught him something.

"Ne! Hot chocolate for me too!" Luffy shouts. Loud and excited, a stark contras to the polite boy on the bed. He sniffles a bit and dives under the comforter a little deeper.

"Yer both getting' milk." Dadan huffs as she stands up from the chair to go to the kitchen to prepare some milk.

She starts off by finding the ingredients, cups and put to boil the water in. She spots a jar called powdered milk on the table. That was convenient, but just to make sure, she takes a pinch to taste. -It was sweet. The kind of flavor kids milk would be. Ace had a jar of this once. Just a jar tho. Garp didn't bother to send over another just like it. On Ace's side, he whined a bit when she couldn't pilfer one from the merchants, but he soon forgot about it and went about eating something else more readily available in the mountains… like mushrooms or milk from wolves or something.

The water boils on the hearth, she takes a rag to hold the kettle and to take it out. Pours it in the cups with the powdered milk she'd put on beforehand. She recalled Magra had told her once, that babies prefer it more diluted, so the water goes first before the formula. But kids prefer their powdered milk creamer, so use three tablespoons of it before pouring in the water. The difference was so apparent, Ace knew when Dadan made it and when Magra made it. Dogra was a bit more of a scrooge with the powdered milk. He would give Ace milk diluted with tea instead. And apparently, Ace liked it better- but that doesn't count. Kids aren't supposed to drink that stuff until they're 5 or something. But hey, nothing bad happened to Ace. In fact, Ace got that high immunity system because of something they did right… right?

Lost in thought, she dips a finger in one cup to taste if the milk was good. Then she dips the same finger in the other cup, simply because that's how she got used to doing it. She'd remember tasting the milk before she gave it to Ace, for reasons what she wanted to make sure it was the way Magra prepared it. -Deeming the two cups good enough, she places them in a tray and brings them up to the boys.

* * *

The boys were rowdier now. Something you'd expect with Luffy. However, it wasn't just Luffy being rambunctious now. Rein was also playing pirates and merchants with him. Rein being the merchant- doctor? Well, that's not impossible but it isn't easy either, but heh, Luffy wants to be the Pirate King, who am I to say they can't do it?

With that, she knocks on the door and opens it, to find the two making a mess of Rein's bed. Luffy jumping on it like the monkey that he is, and Rein throwing play coins at the boy. Her entrance is noticed, not without ceremony. "Dadan's back with the booze!" Luffy cheers. One last jump before landing his ass on the corner of the bed and feet on the floor. He goes to where she stands and grabs both cups.

"Share ya' little punk!" Dadan says off handedly, tucking the tray under her arm. She notes that Rein was back on the bed, flushed and coughing something bad. Until she hears him coughing out actual phlegm and spitting the stuff into a trash bin. "Sounds bad." She says casually. "Better keep yer self on the bed. Luffy, you too. Don't make him over exert himself, ya hear." She reprimands.

"Un." Luffy says as he was already drowning one cup of milk. "Ahhhmmm, this is good." He says, satisfied after licking the cup free of milk, and the corner of his lips which also had milk. When Rein was settled down, Luffy hands him his cup. "Here's your booze, it's good." He says, before sitting cross-legged on the carpeted floor of the room. Once again, playing with the toys, and even collecting the play coins that spilled off the bed.

"Thank you Dadan-san, Luffy-san." He says politely before drowning his milk.

Dadan huffs, but she was proud. It's been some time since she's made milk for someone. She's happy she remembered the process Magra had taught her.

After some time, the cups were collected and placed to the side. She was just about to sit back down on the chair, enjoying the peace and the drowsy Luffy nodding off on the floor, until the boy on the bed started smoking thick puffs of white smoke.

"Shit."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**I Have Another Chapter**,,,** on the way**,,,** but I'm exhausted... T^T**

**To Konohamaya Uzumaki: OMG THANK YOU! XD XD XD -I actually thought Dadan could be shipped with 3 people, exactly and only 3 people. :D**

**To Guest: Whitebeard has taken in teens and orphans. The way I see it, he's a sympathetic man. And people with that much heart get hurt 7X more than actual parents who've lost or hurt kids they've raised since they were babies. Most of his crew joined as pre-teens, but that makes it worse**,,,** because he helped them out of the emotional baggage and the painful and awkward years! DX On Ace tho- he's got TWICE the amount of teen angst and I blame GARP. Sure, Dadan once called him the devil's child when she was drunk**,,,** but GARP! KNEW! AND! DIDN'T! STAY! TO! TEACH! ACE! HOW! TO! HANDLE! THE! TRUTH! - But anyway! Thank you for the comment! Stay tuned for more! XD**

**To chibi-no-baka: Thank you for your comment! Yeah, Ace is gonna try harder. He swears. XD As for Whitebeard reflecting on what could happen when he dies- I actually have something planned for that, but I'm writing too slow and the plot is messed up! DX DX I forgot where I wrote the plotline for this fic! DX **

**To everyone else! Thank you for the wait! Have a great day and enjoy! XD**


	26. The Curse Called Your Luck

**Chapter 27**

The boy on the bed started smoking, releasing smoke from inside him. Steam from his skin and smoke from every hole on his body.

"Shit!" Dadan curses as she runs to the boy. If this kid loses 20 years, he's dead. The boy was half of that age for peats' sake!

"Dadan! What's happening?" Luffy finds himself asking, already at the other side of the boy, hands grabbing for his forehead. Dadan slaps his hands away.

"Be careful. Don't touch him until we know what's happening." She knows what's happening. It's her fault after all.

"Nuh!" Luffy ignores her, reaches for the boy's forehead, as he intended to do at the start. Then he stops releasing the smoke. Immediately, crystal blue eyes snap open to land eyes on the worried black-haired boy with a scar on his face.

"Rain. Are you OK?!" Luffy asks, frantic. "Rain? Can you hear me?" He asks, hands touching everywhere, checking for bones and poking skin, just like Ace does when he's done something stupid before he realizes Luffy was made of rubber and there was nothing that could hurt him other than sharp objects.

"You're not hurt." Luffy announces after his poking and prodding. "How are you feeling?" Luffy asks instead.

"I feel…" He starts, taking one deep breath to fill his lungs, and expelling the air with one exhale. "-fine." He smiles. "My nose is good too." He announces. "I feel better even."

Dadan sighs in relief. "That's good ta hear." She says as she finally collapses on the chair she used to sit on.

"Do meh a favor and keep this a secret from yer' mom." Because Dadan does not know what that woman will do if she finds out her son started smoking.

"Why not?" Rein asks, not sure why he can't tell his mom that he got sick and fell asleep and suddenly he's all better.

"Because!" Dadan takes a second to make an excuse. "She'll find out you were troublesome, hopping around and throwing plastic coins all around. That's why you exhausted yerself, yeah?" Hoping she sounds believable enough that the boy rides the story.

"No, please don't tell mom I was bad." Hook, line and sinker.

"Meh? But I was jumping on the bed, and I didn't have to hide it from Dadan." Luffy explains. "I didn't get in trouble."

"That's because you can't lie for shit, brat." Dadan answers, "What I need ta' know, I can just get it outta ya by askin'."

"Shishishi, that's true." Luffy laughs. "Well, you better rest some more Rain. Luffy pats the bed one last time before hopping off of it.

"Luffy, you can take the couch near the window. Sleep for a bit, I'll start on making dinner down stairs." Dadan says as she stands from the chair. Still quite shaken at what had happened. When the door was closed and she was sure she was alone and no one could hear her, she sighed. Her body started trembling, her eyes started to water and she found her hands clutching her arms and wrapping around her.

When she saw the boy started smoking like Newgate, she was so much more afraid of what would have happened. Unlike Newgate's case, where capable doctors and nurses were just one call away from helping them, this time she was alone with just the kid and Luffy. Magra and Dogra weren't even there to help her. She was so… she was terrified. Being alone was terrifying. - She didn't even know what she'd done to the kid. He could be growing wings on his back or mushrooms on his feet. She just doesn't know!

She finds herself back in the kitchen instead, back pressed against the wall as she slowly loses the strength in her legs. She wipes the tears escaping from her eyes as she lets out a low chuckle. 'Look at you Dadan," she says to herself, 'since when did you learn to cry and fall on the floor like a girl?'

She'd never thought she would do this again, not after that night. The night she lost everything… She breathes, calms herself down before she sniffs, one more unladylike sniff, she finds a tissue at the kitchen counter, wipes the tear tracks away and blows her nose instead… She's been through worse, she'd felt worse before. This was nothing. She repeats it to herself, a mantra in her head.

She looks at the hearth and the cellar on the other side of the wall. It was time to start on dinner. So she works, to keep her mind at ease, to keep her thoughts away from what had happened. And every time she thinks about how she would have explained what happened to Zarhi. A mother who loved and cared for her child like he were the sky that held up all the stars, she repeats in her head, 'count yourself lucky that didn't happen.'

* * *

"Who is Dadan-san to you Captain?" Zarhi asks, as they walk through the cemetery.

For a private tomb, it was more like the cemetery of the whole village. The stones were closed together, signifying the relationships of the people buried around them. The ground is too frozen to dig through, the dead are buried above ground, in little rectangular stone boxes, some even stacked together to indicate a family had died together after an attack or a disease. The designs of the graves were different too, signifying the character of the person, or the era that they died or what they did. One grave had been decorated with pressed dried leaves and grass. Another notable one was a grave made with stone white marble. Zarhi was told it was the grave of a well respected and loved mayor sometime in the past. But at present, the leader stops to look around their current location, also waiting for the captain's answer.

"Dadan is a friend." He answers proudly, with no doubt- "She is also one of my son's foster mother." He says nothing more.

It was Thatch who says it, "But he likes her more than just a friend."

Whitebeard raises a brow. 'What?' He seems to think, and his face! For all the faces he could have conjured, when he is before the other Yonkos and Marines, he couldn't help but show his complete and utterly stupefied expression. His mouth hangs open, about to say a refusal…

"What was that?" He says instead.

This time, it was Marco who raises a brow, high is his unbelievably wide forehead. "Pops," he starts, still trying to form the sentence that won't give him a heart attack. "What Thatch was trying to say is- You like Dadan a lot more than just a friend." Just repeating how Thatch had said it, but getting a bigger reaction from their captain.

"WHAT?" He flounders, a blush creeping up his cheeks, till the tip of his ears and the back of his neck. "I- I don't. We're really just friends! I mean, we're not young anymore. Being like that- at this age is…" He tries to explain. "We're just very close friends." He ends dryly. Saying it more to himself to make the statement sink into his mind. "She sees me as her friend." He continues, "I would like to respect that." He says with finality. He gives a slight smile to his sons, just a lift of a corner of his lip. Just enough to measure them, this was what he wants.

Thatch only looks on in confusion, but Marco, ever the reliable first mate, nods his head in understanding. It was for the best. To keep the peace in the crew, to maintain the peace of the seas.

"Captain-" Zarhi responds. "I may not know you well, nor her, but believe me when I say this. The two of you are good together." She says with a smile. Not saying more as she leads them through another set of graves.

Thatch interrupts, "But!-" Marco slings an arm over the chef's shoulders. "They say they're friends, then they are just friends." Marco says as he leads them through the stones.

Even then, Newgate sighs. It's for the best. He says to himself. "After all, she has a mountain to conquer, and a hideout to build." That was Dadan's dream, and who was he to stop her?

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**Expect sporadic Updates!**

**Thank You Kindly and Enjoy! XD**


	27. There is Nothing Noteworthy to Note

**Chapter 28**

It was dark when the Whitebeards returned. Zarhi had come back a bit earlier after having led 4 batches through the maze of the cemetery. Having enough people, the men had set up a space for waiting at an empty field and even a chair for their Captain to sit on the outskirts of the cemetery. The large set-up was more of a habit by now, that their captain was to rest. The men from the first division even brought with them the medical devices that Whitebeard used to use. Now it just stayed there in the corner.

The 4th division were a friendly bunch with old man Reid. To the point that the next wave of the 100 men that comprised said division came to say their final farewells as well. Along with the second wave, was the packed dinner and sake.

When Whitebeard returned to the simple house, he returned to a tuckered out Luffy and a strangely subdued Dadan. Immediately, he knew something had happened. Something they'll have to talk about later. Rein was tucking in bed while Zarhi thanked Dadan one last time as she sent them out.

They returned back to the ship, while some of his other sons decided to stay in an inn and the others to the brothels. Moby was comparatively silent, with only a few people and two nurses on duty that night.

"Dadan," Newgate calls, while Luffy was safely tucked in Magra's arms. Ready to go back to their room at the second division. Dadan looks to him, with hopeful eyes even. "Would you like to sleepover at my room? There's something we need to discuss…" More about her issues than his.

"Magra, go ta' sleep. I'm sleepin' at the infirmary tonight. Don't wait up." She says before following the Captain to his quarters. Missing the sad look on Magra's face as he lingers looking at the back of her head.

Whitebeard had settled her at the infirmary's doors just next to his room, "Get ready for bed, I'll pick you up later."

"I can go ta' yer door like a regular person Newgate. I ain't an invalid." She pouts as she enters the infirmary door, closing it shut without another word from the captain.

The two nurses on duty were Nurses Cotton and Josephine. "Dadan-san!" Josephine greets, launching herself at her and wrapping strong slender arms around her arms and center. It's been such a long time since she's met-up with them! Foosa's team has just docked a while ago and the nurses there were sent back to the main ship to relieve the current nurses.

"Jo- Josephine?" More of a question, having forgotten the name of the nurse.

"Yes! You remember me! XD" She cheers. Still hugging the woman tightly.

"What are you doing back?" She asks, still stunned and very quickly running out of air from the tight hug of the energetic nurse. "How's the island?"

"The island is well! Just did a check-up on the inhabitants, did some health and safety trying and we're good." She finally let go. Dadan breathes, relieved she wouldn't die from lack of air.

"Good to see you back." She says in labored breath. Josephine smiles, but her smile suddenly turned devious… A shiver ran up Dadan's skin.

"Dadan-san," she starts, sweetly, "What's this I heard about you and our Captain? Hmmm?" Because- Josephine would be one to listen to gossip.

"It's nothing." She assured, "We're just friends. Good friends, really." Dadan smiles. "He'll let us stay in a mountain, in an island under his protection. We'll be fine."

"Yes, I know Oyaji is a really REALLY good man. But, that's not what I've heard Dadan-san." Stars sparkling in her eyes, "Or should I call you Ma?"

Dadan's eyes widen into plates. "W-Where did you hear that from?!" She flounders. This is the first time she's heard of this.

"Don't act like you aren't happy Dadan-san! Oyaji is a great guy! GREAT GUY! You'd be lucky to find a lover like him, you sly minx!" She says it like she was teasing her, good-natured and actually happy Dadan is a couple with her captain. To Dadan however, her world was… "So… have you and the Captain, you know…" She does the universal sign of the coin and the stick, and Dadan loses it.

"We are not a couple." She states firmly. All tease and joy gone from her tone. Her expression a straight face. And Josephine loses her smile. "You should know not to believe such things about your Captain, Josephine." Dadan states. "Those are rumors. I'm tellin' ya'! Know we are just friends. You should know better than ta listen ta rumors." She scolds instead. "I'm not mad at you,-" she takes a step for the infirmary restroom instead, "however, if you believe and spread those rumors, the crew an' marines might get the wrong idea. They might actually target me to get ta' yer' captain. And-" The last part of her sentence goes unsaid as she closes the door to the restroom. 'I'm not strong enough for that.'

When Dadan emerges from the infirmary, freshened up and ready for bed, Josephine apologizes. Bows low like Ace and uses proper speech to say she was sorry for believing such rumors and telling the nurses about it. She promises, not to partake in such behavior again. Dadan accepts her apology. However, when she was about to step out on deck to go to the Captain's cabin, coat and shawl on. She was asked by Josephine. "Where are you going Dadan-san?" She asks in pure innocent concern. Dadan responds honestly.

"To Newgate's. We have something to discuss." Before she closes the door.

On the deck, Dadan hears a girlish squeal from inside the infirmary. Ignoring the squeal, she walks towards the Captain's Cabin at the far side of the deck.

* * *

Three knocks on the door before Newgate opens it for her.

The door was a big ass door. Too heavy for her, she'd said. So he knows to open it for her when he hears her knock. She enters unceremoniously to the heated warm cabin. It was of moderate size, would have been bigger if their Captain weren't already a half-giant. As such, everything in his room was constructed to accommodate him.

She positions herself near the hearth, sighing when the warmth hits her back. The short walk on deck was hell! She has never been more glad that she didn't walk much this morning, and that Newgate was there to carry her everywhere. "That was one hell of a walk on deck. It's freezing out there!" She comments.

"Hey, I offered you a ride, you said you were- what was that again?" He says with a teasing smile as he sits down in front of her to stroke the fire in between them. "Aint' invalid? Was it?"

"I know, I know." She says, but grumbles, "I should have asked yer' old man ass to go back an' fetch me in the cold."

"Well, I'm glad this ass is finally free from a wheel chair." He says, "And what a fine ass, it is may I add."

"Haha! Keep telling yourself that Newgate. I'm sure it'll turn into a decent ass one day."

He feigns hurt, "Are you saying my butt is ugly? How have I not known this? I've lived 72 years with my ass, and no one has told this to me!"

"That's what friends are for Newgate. Yer' welcome." Dadan says. They both end up laughing at their horrible joke.

The atmosphere in the room was light, as light as any other time they had to talk. Newgate almost doesn't want to bring up the issue. Thankfully, it was Dadan who confessed.

"Rein… He drank milk I made and he started smoking like you did." Dadan says, straight to the point.

"What happened to the boy?" Newgate's concern. "He was barely 10, wasn't he?"

"He didn't shrink!" She replies in haste, "He's fine. Better than fine, I think."

Newgate stays silent, his eyes still looking at the hearth, but Dadan knows, he was thinking. All wise men think, and this was what she'd expected to see from Newgate. She wonders, when did she begin to imagine the faces he'd make. When did she start to catalog the faces she'd seen him put on? Storing it all in her memory for the time she'd have to use her imagination to remember him.

"We shall visit the boy tomorrow, with Deuce and Marco." He says. "Dadan, how are you feeling? Does it bother you, was there any backlash to your body?" He asks, concerned eyes on her instead, and Dadan remembers what Josephine had said, 'Oyaji is a great guy!'

"I'm fine." Her short reply, "I- I was just a bit shocked, is all. I didn't think I would… I really have no idea how something I made would…" She stares into the fire. "I don't know how to use my powers." The realization dawned on her. "I was so scared Newgate I didn't know what was happening, that I caused it and I didn't know what I did. He was only 10, and I thought… He wasn't gonna make it." She chokes, clutches her shawl tighter around her, feeling the biting chill of guilt. If something were to happen to such a young innocent. "It's-"

"Terrifying." He completes. "Everyone who's eaten a devil fruit would know…" The way his eyes look into the fire, reminiscing a memory only in his head, "I would know." Because he would remember something so terrifying. "I- I've killed a lot of people, by accident." He confesses, "They didn't deserve it… And I would never forget them."

Dadan finds herself standing, walking over and sitting right beside him, stroking his arm for comfort, silently telling I'm he isn't alone.

"Thanks. For sharing." She says.

"Thanks. For listening." He responds.

As the night grows cold, the two find themselves in comfortable silence. Both were far from alright, both still in lament. But they were sure, if there was one person they wouldn't mind knowing the worst of them- it was the person sitting right beside them.


	28. Nothing Relevant to Reveal

**Chapter 29**

The morning on White Thorn was as chilling as the night. Marco hated the cold, but he didn't mind the snow. Unlike Thatch who loved it and spent half of yesterday playing in the snow near the graves. Marco had turned back to check on the crew's restocking and turned in early for the night. Knowing that most of his brothers would be staying on land while Pops would be getting Dadan and Luffy to bring them back on the ship. Meaning he was also staying on the ship.

Marco was excited for today tho, because, with everyone away, Marco could spend more time with Pops. On a day like this, Ace should take his family on a short market stroll or enjoy the island. That would include Miss Makino, Luffy, the two bandits, and Dadan.

It's been difficult to get Pops' time after Dadan arrived. He wasn't jealous of her. No. How could he? She lost her life and her family. Suddenly lost her ability to fight and swim for a fruit she still has no idea how to use. She's made the personal hit list of one very strong Vice Admiral and she always seems to stroke Ace the wrong way. He wasn't jealous at all. He says as he opens the door to his Pops' quarters.

Still, there were times when Marco wished he knew what was going on in her mind. For example, what are her motives for falling asleep on Pop's chest?

Marco was greeted with two snoring figures on the bed. A large blonde-haired man who's hair was splayed around, snoring as loud as the earthquakes he could cause. He had one arm over another person, a smaller figure with large orange curls as her namesake spilling down his chest. She was also snoring as she drooled in her sleep. The orange-haired woman shivered. "S' cold." She'd sleepily mumbled as she grabbed the blanket and curled in tighter.

Marco realized he was still standing at the door, letting in the cold. Yet in his mind, he was still debating what to do. Should he step in or should he step out of the quarters? Before he could decide, the blanket was pulled higher past Newgate's sock-covered feet, half his torso was still covered by the comforter, but even the sleepy Captain was craving for the extra warmth of the blanket. With still half a conscious mind, he tightened his hold on the figure on his chest and turned them over to his side, dragging the comforter over them.

Dadan didn't wake. In fact, she turned and pressed her back just barely to his covered torso. She sighs in delight at the warmth. Newgate, also in his sleep-addled mind, brought up a hand over his hip, but it also covered Dadan's body, keeping her close to him.

From Marco's point of view, his Pops was spooning Dadan. -Or at least as far as spooning can go with such a big height difference. Suddenly, Newgate wakes, looks straight at Marco, still sleepy-eyed and tired, then returns to sleeping on his side.

"Marco, close the door, yer' letting in the cold." He says. Only then did Marco remember he was still at the threshold. Still having his internal debate whether to step-in and face the two ("just friends" my ass they're practically lovers) or get out (and never speak of this again).

Marco steps in. And he regrets his decision already. "Wake-up Pops. It's 10 in the morning yoi." He says. Hoping his voice is as calm and bored as he always is…. Or at least as bored as everyone says he sounds like. Believe it or not, Marco (and Jozu) are romantics. They don't actively show it, but they've cheered on many brothers regarding their love lives. They've gushed over a lot of them in fact; starting from Oden and Toki's relationship, and every brother that followed and married since.

Marco's greeting, it seems, was enough to wake up the orange-haired woman.

* * *

Dadan wakes up feeling refreshed. Rather, she woke up feeling content, and for once, she thinks the day would be good to her, as if there was a sun shining on her today. What did she do yesterday again?

Not really remembering where she'd slept last night. She blinks a few times to realize she wasn't at the infirmary, nor was she with Makino on their bed. The blanket over her head was a different texture from the ones in the infirmary. It was softer to the touch, almost luxuriously so. She wakes up in darkness but wrapped in warmth. The smell was so familiar, one she'd been accustomed to for weeks. Something musky, like the forest but hints sea of how a person would smell like if they lived in it. It was really warm tho, and she really didn't want to wake-up yet, in fear of the dry warmth going away. The darkness not really an issue to her comfort and the secure feeling she'd felt for the time she was in the warm dark place… but her mind finally decided it was time for her to wake up. -And why did it should like Marco's voice?

"Ngggh" A rumble at her back. "Five more minutes son." Dadan instantly knew it was Newgate. And she panics.

She sits up, immediately scrambles away from him and the arm holding her close. Startled, Newgate pulls his hand away from her. She falls from the bed, hits the floor with a loud thud that could have woken up the whole crew. The soft blanket, a thin pelt, follows her down to the floor.

"Dadan!/ Dadan-san!" The Father and son exclaimed. Both by her side within seconds. Marco digs her out of the tangles of pelt. A rather stubborn fold going around her legs. While Newgate helped her sit-up, asking if she was in pain anywhere.

Marco blushes red, thinking about something else that might be in pain (*cough* from last night *cough*). This doesn't escape Dadan's notice. "Nothing happened brat!" She scolds. Hitting Marco with a slap on the back of his head. It doesn't really hurt him. It was her expressing herself, and talking directly to Marco. Marco won't complain about it.

"Believe, me I just fell asleep here. An' it was too cold ta' get back to the infirmary anyway." Dadan defends herself.

"You know, there's a smaller bed by the corner…." Marco points to the nurse's bed. It was big enough to fit Foosa, and he is about as tall as Dadan.

Clearly, he shouldn't have pointed that out. "I just fell asleep by accident here! Ya' callin' me a liar punk?!"

"No… No!" Marco, says, but became aware he sounded a bit off. "I mean, no. I'm not calling you a liar, Dadan-san, yoi."

"I thought so." She crosses her arms, she shivers. "Why is it so cold here?"

"You're on the floor yoi." Marco answers, helps her up back on Pop's bed.

"Which reminds me. Marco, kindly tell Deuce that both of you will be visiting Reid's house with us. You will just do a simple physical examination on Reid's grandchild." Newgate announces. Marco raises a brow.

"Zarhi said he was well on his way to recovering, yoi."

Dadan looks away, anywhere else… Newgate understands, he'll have to be the one to explain the situation. Once Marco realized what Dadan had done, his eyes widened. "What do you mean 'better than fine?', yoi?" Because if it's what he thinks it is…

"I just… I dunno alright. I just thought about the immunity system nurse Hanna told us about the other day."

"You mean the Immune System, yoi." Marco corrects.

"Yeah, but before that, I was thinkin' about the gene ticks. The explanashun why Ace is strong all the time cuz of his parents." Dadan adds.

"You mean Genetics. "-although, that doesn't always have something to do with the immunity, Marco says in his mind. But enough about that. Bottom Line is, Dadan doesn't have to know advanced chemistry to use her power. The basic science was enough. Dadan had just learned the basics of anatomy and already she had utilized her powers on making cures or ways to strengthen the specific system she was thinking of. Still, they need to verify this. They'll have to do a check-up on Reid's grandkid.

"Son, you should probably stop staring like that. You'll scare Dadan." Whitebeard interrupts his train of thought.

"Staring like what, yoi?"

This time it was Dadan, "Like you're thinking of chopping me up like chopped liver." Completely out of context.

"You hungry Dadan?" The captain says as he stands up from his bed. Bending down to fix what he can and smoothing out the soft comforter over it. The thinner pelt (the one Dadan was supposed to use, but ended up on him too), was still tangled-up around her, half on her, and half on the floor. Strategically (as strategic as she can manage), she kneels and wiggles about to get out of the blanket, already reaching for a corner to fold. Pulling and falling back on the bed. A comical scene. Newgate laughs. Dadan huffs, and the two just bicker like old friends on a sleepover.

"Stop laughing Newgate! And brush yer' teeth, your breath stinks old man."

"Aw, and I was so nice to you. I didn't even flinch when you started drooling on me."

"Oh my f*cking God! Really?" Dadan wipes at the corner of her lips. To her cheek, yup definitely drooled. "Get to the bathroom and wash that stuff off! Geeze! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I thought it was common knowledge that you drool in your sleep." Dadan shoots him a dirty glare. Newgate was amused.

"You drool all the time." Newgate smiles, more like a smirk, as he rubs it in, counts the times he's seen her drool with his fingers. "When you're napping. When ya sleep in the infirmary. When ya nods off too when the nurses are telling ya' something. I think Ace is a cleaner sleeper than you at this point." Dadan swipes at Newgate. She can't she's still trapped in the blanket.

"Then why had- nobody- told me about this?" She huffs, finally out of the pelt. Newgate takes the blanket and folds it-up, simple- like it weren't the thing keeping Dadan prisoner some time ago.

"That's what friends are for Dadan." Newgate returns, the little thing they talked about last night.

"Says the guy with bad breath. Go brush yer teeth Newgate. I'm goin' ta the infirmary. Smell ya later." She says, getting in her coat and shawl, set near the door after last night's talk. Newgate opens the door for her. "See ya later bandit hag." Closing it only when he sees her already at the infirmary doors, inside and safe.

Completely forgetting that the first division commander was still in the room. Witnessing one of the most domestic scenes he's pretty sure he shouldn't be intruding in. Double thinking if he should slip out or...

"Marco, you're still here? Something you want to talk about son?" Newgate asks, already freshening up for the day.

Wordlessly. Marco slips out of the room and goes below deck to the Mess hall.

"Commander!" Deuce greets. Just the person he was looking for. "Huh? You look a little flushed, Commander. Did you get a fever?" Deuce asks in worry. Not that Marco had ever gotten a fever.

No. He doesn't have a fever… But he does need to talk with Jozu. After he tells Deuce to pack for a doctor's visit. And after he checks on the supplies. And after he does a headcount of the people on board. Then they'll head on over for their house visit. Then he can go on and find Jozu.

He can't wait to tell Jozu all about what he'd just seen!

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**Well, we are advised to stay at home and not meet people and not swim in public pools. This Corona stuff is getting in the way of my fun! :C I'm beginning to really hate this pandemic on a personal level. My family and friends are not affected thankfully, but I'm pretty sure I can't live a life in quarantine. This is driving me mad! XP ****I hope I never live in one of those futuristic thriller stories where everyone is in these sterilized bunkers or something. Not that I think we're gonna have an even worse pandemic. Hey, nCov19 might be the black plague of the East. XP CAn I call it that?**

**To Guest: **Yup! Trying to write as much as I can, but the summer heat is unbearable. XP Thanks for sticking around!

**To Push23: **Thanks for the comment! XD


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